Light Fingers
by Aearwen22
Summary: The story of the lives of the Sons of Elrond after the end of the Ring War, as seen through the eyes of a child of Minas Tirith who has lost almost everything. Rated for short scene of threatened violence against a child at beginning of first chapter only
1. Encounters

Chapter 1 - Encounters

Ignoring the loud rumbling from an empty belly, Ivoreth studied the people in the marketplace carefully, satisfied at the large number there to choose from. Neither she nor her younger brother and sister had eaten anything decent for the last two days, and they all would begin to feel it if the day's pickings weren't good enough to find something better than the half-spoiled tossings from the trash heaps on Fourth Circle.

She idly scratched at the red bump where the pests in her bed had feasted on her the night before, and then swiped a hand beneath her nose with a wet sniff before shifting slightly to keep herself in the darkness behind a pillar. Ivoreth knew she was small enough to fit herself into most of the shadows and remain invisible to the crowd while she chose the best target for her day's work.

Once every seven days she had this chance, and she'd learned the hard way long ago not to call attention to herself or allow anything to get in the way of what needed doing. The din of haggling voices, the flapping of drying clothes from clotheslines strung high overhead, the occasional barking of stray dogs, the smell of meat slowly turning sour in the sun, the ever-present hum of gnats, the ringing of the bell up in the Citadel that called the hours, the itch of insect bites – she'd learned to block it all out while watching for the careless food vender to look the other way at the just the right moment.

But today her caution was even more important, because today she needed to do more than simply filch a loaf of bread or a fistful of berries – today she needed to come by coin as well. Her three year old sister had developed a nasty cough and a low fever, and the local apothecary had little time for any without the means to pay for her services. And so she ignored the many details that sought to drag her attention away from the people in front of her. Her gaze flitted from a housewife with a babe settled on a tipped hip to a trio of plainly dressed servants obviously buying for their lord's larder. Plenty of pouches with coin were just waiting the touch of her light fingers that day. Which one would be the best one to tackle?

Who they were didn't matter. All that mattered was that each of them had that which she needed – and she was out to change that. Need was driving her now – a need to provide for and protect her own.

Ivoreth carefully studied and mapped out in her mind the narrow walkways between the booths and outspread blankets piled with goods for sale that was market day in Minas Tirith. Combined with the scaffolding and bustling workmen repairing the damage, there would be a good chance of escaping the square itself, should she be spotted; and she needed to be familiar with all the routes open to her and any obstacles she could hand to any giving chase.

She also quickly located landmarks that indicated the most direct route to the back alleys and child-sized hiding holes of the lower circles of the White City that had become her home since the King had returned. Her brother and sister were safe in the place she'd made for them deep in the maze-like storm drain within the thick outer walls of the city. The bars and barriers along that channel were meant to keep the Enemy out, not children; and many Guards and angry victims had been eluded over the past two years by ducking into one of the openings.

Ivoreth's gaze darted from one side of the scene to the other, counting the number of Guards present and noting their various levels of alertness. The Guards, like the shoppers, grew less wary as the welcome spring sun moved over the Minas Tirith market square; but they remained a real danger to her. Getting nabbed by a Guard meant being tossed into one of the new orphanages the Queen had set up throughout the city, or even into prison.

However, she remembered her Da's tales of being treated like a slave after getting caught himself and tossed into one of those holes by the then-Lord Denethor's justices. The mistress of that particular orphanage had earned herself extra coin by selling her charges into a craftsman's fostering far earlier than allowed by law – and the tales of the beatings and abuse he'd received from the smithy he'd been sold to had given her nightmares when very young. She was determined not to let that be her fate or that of either her brother or sister. A full belly, Da had said to her not long before he'd died in the siege of the city, wasn't worth the ill treatment.

There! Not far away from where three half-grown boys cheered and ran after a rawhide ball, a portly woman bartered with a hefty-looking pouch hanging casually at the back of her hip angrily with a seller of fish. Ivoreth had used the diversion of street urchins' games as a cover before for simple stealing, and she knew her chances this time of getting close to someone paying no attention to her coin pouch would never get better.

Cautiously she pulled the slender knife – the last gift her Da had given her – from its worn sheath on her rope belt and tucked it up against her wrist. It wouldn't do to cut anybody else by accident – or chance it being knocked out of her hand before she'd had a chance to cut the pouch strings. Ivoreth pasted a smile on her face and walked out into the bright sunlight as if she belonged. She put herself in the path of the playful boys, and then laughed and ran with them as if she were part of their game. Every few moments, she would glance at her target to make certain the woman was still paying attention only to the fish seller – and every few moments, she found herself a little bit closer. At last she was close enough – and began to reach out the hand with its concealed blade.

A huge metal-studded paw wrapped itself painfully around her wrist, stopping her action before anything had happened. The force of the grip numbed her hand, and the little knife fell to the cobblestone of the market square. "Just what do you think you're doing?" a rough voice demanded.

Ivoreth cried out in pain as she was hauled back hard against a metal-clad body by an armored arm about her throat, her empty knife hand twisted behind her and pulled up nearly to her shoulder blades.

_Where did they come from? I thought I'd seen them all…_

"I think we got us a thief," another voice replied triumphantly.

Ivoreth's eyes watered as she squinted up into the sunlight to peer at the helmeted face towering over her, and she shivered at the sight of the calculating coldness in the eyes of a second Guard before her who held up her Da's knife. "I didn't do nuthin'…" she whined, squirming to try to ease the tension on her arm. The one that held her arm behind her jerked her hand even further upward, nearly pulling her arm from its socket. "I didn't do nuthin! Lemme go!" she screamed again, this time in real pain.

"Not because you didn't try, girl, so shut it!" A heavy hand cuffed the side of her face, staggering her. "You don't want all these people to be witnesses against you, do you?"

Ivoreth gazed about her wildly. A few of the shoppers were glancing curiously in her direction, but their gazes didn't linger before looking away again. Of course the looks on the faces of the Guards would scare anybody into looking away.

The Guard in front of her bent down and peered at her, then licked his lips. "You know what they do to thieves?" He asked softly, with a leer that made her blood run cold.

Ivoreth swallowed hard, but glared out at him. "I ain't no thief."

"Of course not," he said in a tone of voice that told her that he _knew_ otherwise. "But it sure looks like you were going to cut somebody's pouch strings with this here little blade." He waved her Da's knife in front of her eyes again. "A person doesn't run around with something like this in hand without meaning to do somewhat of a mischief." He bent down close enough that the sour smell of wine made Ivoreth's stomach turn over. "Now answer my question – what does the King do with thieves?"

"Prison?" she squeaked in terror. _Da said he'd heard they don't even feed a person there!_

The second Guard's laugh made her shudder. "Aye, for a night or two – but only until they set you against the dungeon wall and put an arrow through you. You ain't worth the coin to keep longer than that."

Ivoreth began squirming again, despite the agony in her arm.

_Raini! Daren! Who will feed you now? Who will keep you safe?_

"Please…" She gazed back and forth between the Guards as she tried to slip from the unforgiving hold. "I didn't mean it… I promise…"

The Guard who held her arm let go of her throat and gave her a shove forward that he controlled with her twisted arm. "Oh sure! Now you're all innocence and promises. But that little knife of yours tells a different story. They may even put that arrow in you tonight for that."

Ivoreth sobbed in dread. This was worse than her Da had told her – to die like this, over so very little!

"Indeed," the second Guard agreed all too quickly. "Who's to say that you weren't going to shove that blade into that poor woman?"

"I wouldn't…" she protested, beginning to understand that her words meant nothing to these men.

"Yeah? Who's gonna believe a gutter-snipe like you?" the first Guard snarled, pushing Ivoreth into a narrow lane between buildings, back away from the crowds.

Ivoreth blinked in confusion. This wasn't the way to the prison _or_ the orphanage! "What are you going to do? Where are you taking me?" Her pitch climbed as her horror doubled.

"She's a bit young," the first Guard said in a low voice.

"I like 'em like that," the second replied, giving Ivoreth a leer that made her stumble in terror and disgust. "Why shouldn't we enjoy ourselves before taking her in? It'd be a real shame to waste this one by letting her die unspoiled."

The first Guard's reply rang like a death knell. "Aw – why bother taking her in at all when we're done? She's just like the others – nobody will miss her."

Ivoreth began to struggle in earnest. She'd seen other girls being dragged away by pairs of Guards into the deepest shadows before; she'd heard their screams echoing through the night even into the depths of the storm drain – and seen what was left of them in the morning's cold light. But never in her darkest nightmares had she ever thought that she'd end up as one of them. "Let me go!" she screamed, deliberately ignoring the agony of her twisted arm and shoulder to kick backwards towards the leg of her captor.

"She's got fire," the second Guard commented, then thrust his face into hers. "Scream all you want now, little girl – we're gonna make you scream anyway."

Ivoreth managed to duck and slip away just enough so that she could turn and take the pressure from her abused arm. She screamed again wordlessly and sprang at her captor, grabbing at his helmet and trying to rip at his face with her teeth.

"Sauron's balls!" the first Guard yelped. From behind her came the clutch of violent hands at both shoulders, and Ivoreth was torn away from her captor. Pain exploded within her head as her nose and face slammed into the stone of a nearby wall, and she heard the tearing of cloth as she fell into a bottomless pool of darkness and knew no more.

oOoOo

Reality returned to Ivoreth gradually, the intense pain slowly began to overwhelm her senses.

_I'm not dead yet?_

Her nose and cheeks felt as if they were on fire, she couldn't seem to open her eyes, nor could she move her right arm. From the depths of the darkness that still surrounded her, she tried to scream her pain, fear and desperation – but all that emerged from her lips was a low moan.

"Get those animals out of here!" A rough man's voice ordered sharply from several paces away, the harsh sound of it making Ivoreth flinch violently and then moan in renewed agony – but it wasn't the voice of either of the men who had caught her.

"She's a thief and a murderess," shouted the first Guard. "We were only doing our duty!"

"What you two were intending to do to this child most certainly was _not_ your duty – even if she were the things you say! You bring shame to your office – and to yourselves." the rough-voiced man replied angrily. "If you'd gotten any further, the lord there would have been within his rights to run you through." Sounds of scuffling and cursing gradually faded away into the distance.

_Are they gone? I need to get up – I need… Get away… Before someone else comes…_

In an attempt to calm herself and think of a next action, Ivoreth breathed in through her nose; and then she coughed as the air dragged with it a choking, coppery liquid. The cough was pure agony, and she moaned again.

Ivoreth felt a soft cloth wrap over and around her, and only then did she realize that she was naked. Very careful arms picked her up from where she lay and cradled her close. "Easy, child. You're safe now." A deep and musical voice sounded very close to Ivoreth's ear. She turned her head slightly and then whimpered when the agony exploded anew as she brushed her cheek against the chest of the one who held her now.

_Who is this? What has happened to me? Why can't I open my eyes? Why can't I move my arm? Let me go!_

"Hush now," the musical voice soothed into her ear. "All will be well, little one."

Ivoreth could tell she was being carried forth – but to where? And would she be imprisoned once there – leaving Raini and Daren to starve or to be caught and thrown into an orphanage and then sold as her Da had been?

_Daren doesn't know how to steal things without getting caught – I didn't want him to have to do that. And Raini's getting sick too often now on the bad food from the trash heaps. What am I going to do? They're going to die just like Evien did!_

She shuddered in fear and despair, and then moaned as the tremors only brought forth sharp, new aches and pains to join those already tormenting her. The steps taken grew faster, longer – more hurried.

"Merciful Powers, my lord!" A woman's voice sounded this time as the movement that surrounded her came to a sudden halt. "Bring her in here – and let me call…"

"I can care for her myself," the musical voice announced with calm patience. "Prepare a draught of poppy juice – and then a warm bath."

Ivoreth felt herself carried a few more steps and then very gently deposited on something soft and comfortable. The soft cloth was removed and another cover brought over her body before she had much of a chance to feel a chill. She heard the sound of water, and then a cool rag was laid very carefully over her aching nose, eyes and cheeks and another was then used to wipe over her mouth and at her forehead.

"Listen to me, little one." The musical voice had moved close to her ear once more. "Your eyes are swollen shut – and this is why you cannot see. Your nose is broken. But to care for you properly, we need to know all that is amiss. Do you hurt anywhere else?"

Ivoreth swallowed hard. "A…arm," she finally managed.

"This one?" Gentle fingers touched her right shoulder. The soft touch was another bolt of agony. Ivoreth whimpered and tried to squirm away, only to cry out from the pain of even that small movement.

"Here is the draught, my lord – and the bath is nearly prepared."

Strong arms slipped carefully behind Ivoreth's shoulders and lifted. "Drink this, little one. It will help you sleep so that we might tend you without hurting you." A tiny cup was put to her lips, and Ivoreth gagged on the first, bitter sip.

She pressed her lips tightly together and shook her head.

_No! I can't sleep! I need to get back to Raini and Daren! Let me go!_

She would have struggled, but her body still wasn't paying attention to what she was asking of it. Just trying to move made her shoulder explode again, and she whimpered her pain.

"Yes, I know it tastes horrid," the musical voice seemed to sympathize even as the small cup was returned to Ivoreth's lips. "But you need this. Finish now."

Slowly, sip by sip, Ivoreth choked and gagged the bitter draught down, grateful at last to be returned to her comfortable cushion when it was gone. A tear eased its way past swollen lids to drip down the side of her face and into her ear.

_What will they do when I don't come back?_

A large hand picked up her left hand and cradled it comfortingly – and this time, when the darkness came for her, it was warm and welcoming. And terrifying.


	2. Escape

Ivoreth's senses took their time to resume their function. There was a soft hum of voices some distance away that sounded as if it were coming through a closed door. Her arm was now bound to her chest, but the bindings weren't painfully tight, only enough to hold her arm in place. She tried to swallow away the sour, coppery taste, but ceased when doing so made sore cheeks ache – although not with the grinding pain from before. She could feel the gentle press of a bandage covering her nose and wrapping around the back of her head. She was warm, dry, and as comfortable as she could be with the hurts she'd been given. And she could open her eyes now, managing only a mere slit – but anything was better than the nothing that had come before.

What she could see in the half-light was a room richer than anything she'd ever seen in her life. Another empty bed sat against an opposing wall, covered with a clean, well-mended and warm-looking blanket over a white fabric brighter than any Ivoreth had ever seen. Between the two beds was a small cabinet that held a plain porcelain pitcher and basin, a lit candle that burned in its holder with very little smoke or soot, and a short stack of folded material. The walls that surrounded her were of stone, and a window stood open across the room, beyond which all was dark.

_What is this place? Why am I here?_

In a chair next to her sat a person completely outside of Ivoreth's experience. His long legs stretched out comfortably into the empty space before him, richly clothed arms folded over a solid chest, and shining black hair flowed long and free except where braided back from either side of his face. His face was pale and smooth, with no sign of even a shadow of the beard worn by all the other men she'd ever seen.

_Is this a prison guard? Where is his armor?_

Wait! She'd seen such as him once before, but only at a very great distance, on the day the King had returned to the White City. Those who could only have been his kin had been among the great folk surrounding the new King and his Lady, not in the crowds that lined the way. What was such a one doing here, sitting next to her bed?

Ivoreth shifted slightly so she could see his face better, and her movement brought expressive grey-blue eyes open to gaze at her.

With a gentle smile, the man bent toward her slightly. "You're awake at last!" It was the musical voice that she remembered from the very depths of her recent nightmare – a voice that had tried to comfort. The grand man moved closer still. "How do you feel?"

Ivoreth's mind was rapidly clearing of the cobwebs – and her previous desperation began to seep back.

_I need to get out of here! How long have I been here?_

The man's face didn't change, despite having had no answer to his question. "Who is your _adar_ and _naneth_, little one? How can we find them to tell them where you are and what has happened to you?" The grey-blue gaze was sharp; Ivoreth could tell that he was aware that she heard and understood him and yet refused to answer.

_Da warned me. If I tell them Nan and Da are gone, they'll want to throw me into that orphanage place! Da said they need slaves to do the work, but they just call them "prenticks'" or some other such to make it sound better. No matter how sweet it might sound, it's all a trick. _

There was no way Ivoreth was going to tell this grand person that her Nan had died a few months after Raini was born, or that her Da had probably been under one of the siege's flaming balls that had landed directly on the inn where he worked. When everything had calmed down again, she'd gone looking for him – just like so many others in the City had done. All that remained of the inn was the stone front and walls. Everything within was burned away, and she'd never seen her Da again. She stared back at the man, trying desperately not to give any sign of weakness or fear. And the longer she looked at him without even attempting an answer, the more concerned those beautiful grey-blue eyes became.

"Do you not trust me then?" he asked at last in a soft and disappointed tone.

She wanted to – oh, how she wanted to! Something in that voice reached out a brushed comfort against her very soul, telling her that everything was going to be all right – but she couldn't trust it. She didn't dare. Da had told her often enough, and her own experiences with grand folk had reinforced the lesson that none of them could be trusted to do more than kick or push her down. She was dirt to them. Besides, Raini's and Daren's very lives depended on not listening to anyone or anything else. She had to get back to them – and soon.

The grand one rose, in a motion that was so smooth, powerful and graceful that Ivoreth couldn't help but hold her breath in awe and stare. He walked to the door, which opened easily – proof that it wasn't locked – and spoke in quiet words to someone outside. When he then turned back to her, it was with a gentle smile on his face. "I told them to bring you some food," he stated and seated himself on the bed next to her. He reached out to very carefully pull her into a sitting position leaning against him for a moment while he rearranged the pillow, then eased her back against the soft cushion to sit up comfortably. "You look as if you haven't eaten for a while."

_This is wrong. I don't belong here in this fancy place. _

Ivoreth finally was in a position to look down at herself – and her mouth dropped open at the sight of the fine white linen shirt that covered her arms and chest. Her thin fingers cautiously touched the weave of the cloth, and Ivoreth wondered that anything that thin and fine could make her feel warm. Again she looked up at the grand one, thoroughly confused.

_Da never said the orphanage would be like this. Where am I?_

"You're safe, child," he replied, as if he could read the questions in her eyes. "You're in the Houses of Healing, safe from those who tried to harm you."

_The Healing Houses? But Da said they weren't for folk like us! _

The door opened, and a young woman in a plain grey gown came into the room carrying a tray. Ivoreth's mouth began to water from the delicious scents that came from the tray, which was placed on her very lap and then uncovered. Two whole slices of bread – thick and white with a golden crust – lay on a white porcelain plate next to a bowl with a dark liquid that was the source of the wonderful smells. Another smaller plate held two slices of cheese, with another small plate holding some sort of sliced fruit.

Ivoreth's stare moved in disbelief from the contents of the tray to the grand one, who nodded his thanks to the woman and carefully unwrapped a small square of cloth from around a metal knife and spoon. "Come now," he urged, tucking the fabric into the neck of her shirt and frowning slightly at the way Ivoreth pulled away from the touch, "Eat something. You'll feel better." He dipped the spoon into the rich looking liquid and brought it to her lips. "Try it."

As if mesmerized, Ivoreth opened her mouth obediently and then closed her eyes in pure bliss at the explosion of taste. She could remember her Nan making something similar but not half as tasty, back when they had had a small hut with a cooking fire; but it had been years since she'd tasted anything like it. When she felt the touch of the spoon on her lips again, she quickly reopened her eyes as well as her mouth. "Is it good?" the grand one asked kindly.

She nodded and opened her mouth again expectantly as the spoon was again dipped into the liquid. "You're like a baby bird," the man chuckled, the warmth in his voice again reaching inside her and soothing her fears. "Here – try it yourself." With gentle fingers, he arranged Ivoreth's hand on the spoon and guided it from bowl to lips. It only took a couple of tries before Ivoreth remembered what her Nan had taught her – and in very little time, she had finished the last drop by herself and shyly handed the spoon back to him.

"Try some bread, child."

Ivoreth looked longingly at the thick slabs of white bread and the cheese not far from it. "Go ahead – it's your meal," the great one's musical voice urged again.

_I wish Raini were here – this is what she needs. This and medicine._

She reached for one of the slices with a show of reluctance she didn't really feel, and then slipped a slice of cheese on top of it before taking a small bite. The bread was soft and warm, with a scent she would only smell when passing by the bakery near the City Gate early in the morning filled her nose. The mellow tang of the cheese went well with the bread, which tasted every bit as good as fresh bread had ever smelled. Ivoreth filled her mouth with a larger bite, and then began to cram the entire slice of bread in all at once, before it could be taken away from her.

"Slowly, child, or you'll choke," the man cautioned with another chuckle. Ivoreth's eyes opened as wide as the swelling around them would allow, and her now-empty hands dropped back into her lap and then folded around her chest defensively. She eyed the remains of the food on the tray longingly, chewing slowly so that the action of eating would last just a little longer.

_Is he going to take it away now? _

Huge hands reached for and then covered hers as the great man leaned forward. "No, no, little one, you misunderstand me. This is all yours. Just don't try to eat so much at once that you can't swallow and choke." The brilliant grey-blue eyes gazed into hers with an expression that once more begged wordlessly for her trust.

Ivoreth closed her eyes against the onslaught of feelings she had neither the right nor the luxury to allow. Her belly was more content now than it had been for days, and having to be around one who was both beautiful and completely beyond her was becoming tiring. He confused and frightened her – such folk as he was never kind and nice to street brats like her. She didn't dare relax.

_Maybe, if he thinks I'm asleep, he'll go away – and then I can find a way out of here._

She felt a gentle touch brush her hair back from her forehead, and then the weight of the tray lifted from her legs. "Very well, little one," the musical voice sighed. "Rest. I'll set the rest of this here for you for when you awaken later." She felt rather than saw him rise, and then the chair next to the bed creaked as if it once more bore the weight of someone sitting.

The room subsided into a calm silence. The sounds of the City coming to rest in the depths of night floated through the open window, broken by the rich chime of the Citadel bell calling the curfew. Just as Ivoreth was beginning to think of opening her eyes again to see if the grand one still sat guard next to her, she heard the door open. "Lord Elladan? You asked to be reminded of your appointment in the Citadel."

Ivoreth felt the air move as the man rose from the chair again and bent over her as she lay quietly, barely breathing, pretending sleep. He murmured something into her ear in a language she didn't understand and then stepped back. "You should probably call the warden of the City orphanages," he said in his melodic way - probably to the woman who had brought him his summons. "This little one needs a safe and warm place to sleep and good food to make her healthy again until we can return her to her people."

Ivoreth had to work very hard not to gasp in horror. Here and the grand man had begged her to trust him – and now he was directing others to toss her away into the same hole her Da had ended up in all those years ago!

_Da was right – fine folk can't be trusted. I have to get out of here – NOW!_

Heart pounding loudly in her ears, she forced herself to not make a single move or take a single gulping breath. The man thought her asleep – he needed to continue thinking that.

"Aye, my lord," the woman agreed, equally softly, and then the sound of the door closing gave Ivoreth the clue that she was finally alone. She waited for another very long, quiet moment to make certain that another hadn't been assigned to take over the watch at her side before she did anything she wouldn't want them to see.

When she was finally convinced that she would be left to her own for a while, Ivoreth opened her eyes as wide as she could and pushed herself more erect with her undamaged arm. As the great one had promised, the tray with the remains of her meal sat on the little chest between the beds, once more covered with a small square of coarse linen. Ivoreth pushed the blanket back and dangled her legs over the edge of the bed – surprised to find it much higher up from the floor than she'd originally thought. The gown she was wearing was bunched slightly at her knees – but as she slid cautiously from the bed, it draped nearly to her ankles. Her feet were bare, and a quick check showed no sign of her old sandals anywhere.

First things first. She tiptoed to where the tray sat and quickly bound up the remnants of her meal in the square cloth that had covered it. That bundle she shoved into the bandaging that held her arm to her chest, where it would remain secure until she could bring it out again for Raini and Daren.

_At least I can bring them__** something**__ good to eat tonight. I'll just have to think of something else to sell for Raini's medicine. Wait a moment…_

As an afterthought, she pinched out the flame on the candle and then tucked it and its holder securely into the bandaging with the food. If nothing else, she could find someone on First Circle who would be willing to trade a coin or two for a fine wax candle and holder – coin that could feed the three of them for a day or so as well as pay the apothocary.

Next she reached up her left hand and worried at the bandages wrapped around her head. She couldn't go out into the streets like this – the bandaging on her nose would make her stand out like a candle in the dark. It wasn't easy to remove – and Ivoreth whimpered quietly to herself when her twisting made aching muscles in her back and shoulders begin to sing in pain again – but finally she was able to pull the thicker bandaging from her nose and toss it on the bed. Her nose felt heavy on her face, and a light touch was all it took to convince her to leave it completely alone.

But what to do about her clothes? The linen gown she wore would be like another bright candle in the dark, but she could half-way remember the sound of ripping cloth that told her that her former set of rags had probably been tossed in a trash heap somewhere. Turning, Ivoreth eyed the blanket that had been over her in the bed. It was of a darker material – one that would help her blend into the outer darkness, as well as keep her warm while she made her way back to the storm drain. Ivoreth wasn't happy to find out that she would lose the use of her good hand and arm to the job of holding the folded blanket about her like a cloak, but there was little she could do.

She was ready now – all she needed was a way out. Taking a deep breath, she moved over to the open window and looked out – and began to feel as if her world was slowly righting itself again. She wasn't in an upper floor of the building after all, but rather right next to a sweet-smelling garden. The light of the moon above showed that the ground outside was well within reach. She laid the blanket over the window ledge, sat on it, shifted her legs through the opening and then slid onto the soft grass. She pulled down the blanket from the window and wrapped it about her again with some difficulty. Ivoreth was ready at last to find the garden entrance and escape the Healing Houses.

She had never smelled such sweet flowers as those in the beds past which she walked as silently as she could. The moonlight shone down on some of them, and Ivoreth wished that she could take the time to gather a few to give a smile to Raini – but she pushed on. Working to stay in the shadows as much as possible, she had made almost a complete circle of the garden when a wooden gate presented itself, sheltered within the drooping leaves of a climbing vine-covered alcove. Ivoreth pushed – and bit back a cry of triumph when it moved open on nearly silent hinges.

Before her, the wide main street of the Sixth Circle stretched to the left upwards toward the Tower and Citadel and to the right downwards toward the Sixth Gate. Ivoreth took a deep breath of freedom and looked back over her shoulders to the dark shadow of the Healing Houses. She'd never been quite this high up in the City before – and the task of making her way back down through four full circles after curfew without attracting attention would test her abilities at keeping to shadows and remaining unseen – but she had food for her brother and sister, and a need to see for herself that they were still all right.

_I'm coming, Raini! Wait for me, Daren! Please be there, and be safe!_


	3. Not Again!

Ivoreth breathed a deep sigh of relief as the darkness of the storm drain closed around her. A long night of hiding in the darkest of shadows until the Guard patrols had gone far enough past that she dared move forward down the sloping road had been nerve-wracking. Never fond of the Guards before, now they terrified her. Every footfall she'd heard had made her heart pound painfully with the memory of rough, metal-studded hands.

But she was safe now. She knew the way through these tunnels like the back of her hand, and needed no lights to tell her how far to walk or where to turn. Squeezing through the bars of the first obstacle hurt, though, when she accidentally bumped her sore cheek against the cold metal. Tears had run down her face for a long moment, and then she had simply started walking again.

_I have to get back to them! They have to be safe! I need to be safe!_

This night, the low hum of voices that she began to hear in the distance was the most beautiful sound she'd ever heard.

_Almost there…_

Several small bodies brushed past her, moving quietly in the opposite direction. One she heard stop in front of her. "Ivo?" Daren's voice sounded small and very frightened.

"What are you doing out here?" she demanded almost angrily as she felt her little brother clasp her around her waist tightly. "Why aren't you with Raini, where you belong? Who's taking care of her?"

Daren was crying as he threw himself at her. "Why didn't you come back, Ivo? It's been three whole days! I was so scared…" Ivoreth sucked in a breath as her little brother's head bumped her bound arm and reminded her of everything that happened. "Ivo?" the boy froze at the sound of his sister's pain. "You all right?"

"I am now, Daren," Ivoreth soothed, forcing herself not to sound upset. "Let's go find Raini – I've got food."

Daren's hand began exploring the bandaging that held the arm in place. "What's wrong with your arm?" he sniffed away his tears. "Why is it tied up like that?"

"I ran into some Guards," Ivoreth answered truthfully. "I have it tied up because they hurt me, and it hurts to move my shoulder."

"They _caught_ you?" Daren's voice shimmered with horror. She knew that at seven years, he could remember his Da's stories too, and that he was as frightened of being found out as she was.

"I got away, though," Ivoreth told him with a confidence she hoped was convincing, glad her little brother couldn't see whatever bruises covered her sore nose and cheeks yet. "All is well. Come on – let's go find Raini."

The two squeezed themselves through the next set of bars, Ivoreth careful this time not to bump anything painful. Several paces later, the passage took a sharp turn to the right and widened as they approached one of the huge cisterns hidden deep within the walls. High above them, an opening through the very outer wall of the City itself glowed dimly of a day just beginning. Combined with the glowing circle from an open well directly above the center of the cistern, the two openings threw just enough light into the chamber that some details could be seen.

The cistern had become a haven for many who hadn't been able to flee the destruction of the siege with the noble women and children – those who gathered here now were mostly the children of those of too humble position to have had much choice in the matter. Time, illness and the City Guard had trimmed their numbers slowly over the last year or so, but there were still several sibling groups like hers that called this chamber home. A narrow set of stairs on the inside wall of the chamber led up to a high ledge ringing the chamber where each person or group had staked out their space. There was just enough room to walk around each small pile of belongings or stretched out figure. Ivoreth's gaze swept each exposed face as she topped the stairs until she found the one she wanted.

"I'm here, Raini," Ivoreth sighed and dropped her hand from the blanket as she squatted to reach out to her tiny sister, who was still groggy from a recent nap, and to gather her close. "I'm here," she whispered against the tangled, mud-colored locks.

The toddler took one look up with eyes far too large for her face and then huddled into her big sister's open arm. The little girl was very warm against her despite the chilled air of the chamber around them. "Oh, Raini!" Ivoreth breathed in worry. Her time away had done Raini no favors at all!

_Just like Evien. No! Not like Evi! _

"What's this?" Ivoreth felt Daren bend to pick up the blanket from beneath Ivoreth's foot and then shift to his sister's side. "Cloth?"

"It's a blanket, Dar," Ivoreth corrected him with a touch of pride. "Now we can be warm while we sleep."

"But Raini's already too warm."

"I know," Ivoreth sighed, all too aware of the warmth coming from the toddler at her side. "But maybe the blanket will help – and I have food too."

"You said you had food?" Daren pressed closer, obviously eager. "What did you bring?"

"Good food this time," Ivoreth answered vaguely, "not trash-heap leavings." She dug into the bandaging at her arm and finally pulled out the bundle she'd tucked away hours earlier. "Look! Bread – and even some cheese! And fruit!"

She tore the thick slab of bread into two equal parts and handed one into her brother's hands. Daren stuffed the bread into his mouth and chewed vigorously, his eyes wide with pleasure. Dropping from a squat to sitting on the floor, Ivoreth felt Raini climb slowly into her lap – and she tore a small piece from the soft, white center of the slice and put it into the toddler's hand. "Here, Raini – eat this. It will do you good."

The tiny child stuffed the bread in her mouth and chewed only a little bit before swallowing the lump whole. "Smaller bites, Raini," Ivoreth directed, breaking off another piece of the softer bread and handing it to her. "You don't want to choke." Her face flamed, remembering having to be told the same thing not long before. After handing her sister a third piece of the soft white center of the slice, Ivoreth retrieved the slice of cheese and broke it in half. Daren's hand was out for his share immediately, while it took some coaxing to get Raini to take hers to nibble on. Daren obviously remembered the taste of cheese and enjoyed it – but the last time they'd been able to afford any was long before Raini was able to enjoy it.

Ivoreth could see the hunger in her little brother's eyes twinkle in the dim light as he gazed at the pieces of fruit while trying to be patient while his little sister ate her fill. It was very hard to watch him be hungry. "Here." She handed him one of the slices and watched it vanish in a single bite. Raini had at long last polished off her piece of bread and the cheese, and Ivoreth handed her a slice too. The toddler took her slice and sucked on it, her mouth turning up in the first smile Ivoreth had seen from her sister in almost a week.

"You aren't eating, Ivo?" Daren asked around the fruit.

She shook her head. "I had some earlier – I'm fine." She carefully bound the remains of the fruit back up into the square of material and tucked it back into the bandage on her arm. It was another very small meal for the little ones – something to be carefully guarded against some of the others. She hadn't missed the jealous glances from the half-grown boy sprawled against the wall a few paces away.

She motioned with her nose. "Bring that blanket over here – help me tuck us all in."

"You not gonna out again today?"

"Not until dark." Ivoreth shuddered. She couldn't defend herself anymore, and would have to trust to the cover of darkness for protection now. Moreover, without Da's knife, there would be no more pouch strings – no more coin with which to buy food or medicine until she found another way to steal things that could be traded for coin. And until she had something else to wear, she wouldn't be able to stand idlely around the shops or booths waiting to snitch fresher food either. "I'll go out after dark and see if old Garlain's tossed something edible, though."

Raini quickly settled down on her big sister's lap beneath the cover of the blanket, and she soon fell into a restless sleep interrupted all too often with a barking cough. Daren had his head pillowed on her bad arm, but the aching pressure was reassuring. Ivoreth breathed in a sigh of relief. They were both still here – both still alive – and that was all that mattered. She wouldn't let Raini down the way she had Evien; one way or the other, Raini would live and get well again.

The quiet and dripping of the cistern water was soothing to Ivoreth. As her eyes closed, she thought once more of the grand and confusing man who had sat in the Guard's chair next to her, running through everything she'd seen and heard in that rich room in the Healing Houses. The eyes of that man – one who had been called Lord Elladan – had been so beautiful and kind, and his plea to be trusted had sounded so real. What a disappointment to find out he was no better than any of the others!

_Besides, what kind of name is "Elladan"?_

oOoOo

Ivoreth shifted uncomfortably against the cistern wall, her dreams anything but good ones.

"_You have to get that sister of yours out of here." Balil sounded grim._

"_She has as much right in there as the rest of us," Ivoreth argued._

"_She's sick," Jarem shook his head. "She'll make the rest of us sick too."_

"_It's just a cold," Ivoreth complained. "Nobody's thrown __**you **__out when you start coughing."_

"_This isn't just a cold, and you know it. The rest of us agreed, Ivo. She's got to go." Balil's two younger brothers had Evien between them, and they shoved her into Ivoreth's arms the moment they had her close enough._

_Evien did look bad. Her face was pasty-white and drooping, as if she had no energy to hold her head up. She'd been sick since the last time she'd gone out to bring back food – food that none of the rest had been able to stomach. Evien had declared that if nobody else wanted it, she'd eat it all herself – and had. Ivoreth had wondered if she should have insisted her sister throw the mess away untouched, but had said nothing. Bad food hadn't bothered any of them that much before…_

"_But it's cold outside the drain. Where will we stay?"_

"_It doesn't matter. She can't stay here." Jarem declared solemnly._

"_What about Daren and Raini? I can't just take them out into the cold and the rain…"_

"_They're fine where they are – and they can stay. But she goes." Balil turned away. "She doesn't come back until she's well again – or you all go."_

_Evien leaned hard against Ivoreth and coughed miserably._

The dream shifted.

"_Evi – wake up! Come on…" Ivoreth sobbed._

_Rain continued to pour down in a cold stream, keeping the small channel between buildings half-flooded and the two girls within soaked. All of the other small refuges were full of others in similar circumstances – none of them very healthy anymore. Ivoreth had spent the better part of the last day looking futilely for a blanket, cloth, anything to keep her little sister warm._

_And now she had returned – and Evi wouldn't answer her. Her face was a strange color of yellow-blue, and she was oddly stiff._

"_Evi! Wake up!" Ivoreth shook her sister hard, but the girl didn't move at all. Ivoreth put her hand on her sister's chest – then drew it away in shock to find it ice-cold and utterly still. As the horror built, she backed away from the body on the ground, which had somehow become so much smaller – and the hair faded from dark and long to shoulder length and mud-colored. Ivoreth looked a little more closely and then gasped._

"_Noooo…"_

Ivoreth shuddered and jerked awake, then looked down into her lap when Raini once more let go with a sharp cough before snuggling closer beneath the thin blanket. Tears slipped to Ivoreth's cheek as the touch of the child's skin against hers burned.

_Not again! Merciful All-Father, not again!_


	4. Gains and Losses

"Five."

"Three, and not a single bit more."

"Four." Ivoreth pushed the candleholder closer to the old man. "It's good metal – worth a lot."

A gnarled hand reached out and snagged candle and candleholder alike. "Done."

"Hey!" Ivoreth grabbed for the candle and missed. "That wasn't part of the deal!"

"I take the candle too, or you can take your wares elsewhere." Ice-blue eyes gazed with cold calculation at her, putting both holder and candle back down on his ragged blanket well within her reach. "Take it or leave it, girl – your choice."

Ivoreth sighed. "Take," she agreed reluctantly, and then held out her hand for the four precious coins that would feed her and her siblings for the next few days. The old man counted them into her palm cautiously, looking as if parting with each of them was a huge disappointment.

"Go on with ye, then," he waved his hand in an imperious dismissal. "And get yerself some decent togs. Folks are going to be thinking the wrong things, you wandering about in sleep clothes." His eyes narrowed. "From the looks of yer face, you look like an escapee from the Healing Houses."

Ivoreth sighed and turned away, the precious coin clutched tightly in her good hand. As much as it bothered her to have to depend on anyone but herself, she was going to have to enlist Daren's help in getting more decently clothed. The old man was right – the sleeping gown she was still wearing could cause the kinds of questions she didn't want to answer. As much as she hated to go anywhere near the place, the trash heap behind the nearest orphanage often held clothing that still had a little bit of service in them yet. Daren, being smaller and already wearing clothing that would blend into the trash heap, could do the scrounging. He was good at such things.

But that could wait a day or so – today she would visit the apothecary – and two of her precious coins would go for the herbs that would make Raini better. Then she'd go to the bakery nearest the newly repaired City Gate, which sold bread for a single coin per loaf. It would be a relief to have food without having to steal it for a change. Her Nan would never have tolerated…

_I won't think of Nan. I do what I have to._

She looked both ways as she prepared to dart across the street for the deep shadow that would hide her as much as possible between here and the City Gate. It was, after all, late afternoon – and the street was filled with horses, carts and people jostling their way through on the way to their destinations. She gathered the long skirt up into her bad hand, as much to give her bad arm something to do to keep it from moving much as to keep the linen out of the dust and prevent tripping, and set out.

The apothecary shop was in a small lane that stretched away from the main street, not much more than a doorway and a shop only barely wide enough for two people to pass by each other in front of the long counter. The interior of the shop was dark, and bunches of drying herbs dangled high over Ivoreth's head. The entire wall behind the counter was a set of small drawers, each with a small, yellowing tag with writing on it. The scent of plants of every possible use filled her nose with a heady and almost intoxicating effect. Ivoreth breathed in deeply and then pushed herself up to the counter to wait for the old woman's attention to fall on her.

"Ye wanting a salve for them bruises then?" The tall, thin woman bent over the counter to get a better look at her face. "Yer Da do that – or…"

"My sister is sick," Ivoreth interrupted, not wanting to dwell on why her face probably contained colors better suited to sunsets or tapestries, like Nan used to say. "I need medicine for her."

Steel grey brows lowered in the thin, pale face. "What's wrong with her?"

"She coughs, and she has a fever."

"How long now?" Already the woman was on the move, pulling out a number of small drawers from the wall behind her and extracting a pinch of the contents of each to place in a small fabric bag.

"A week, maybe…" Ivoreth shook her head. "It's been getting worse."

The woman continued to move surely from one drawer to the next, muttering to herself as the little bag of herbs slowly filled. Finally she slammed the last drawer shut and whirled to face Ivoreth. "You have a way to boil water?"

Ivoreth's heart sank. Fuel for a fire was hard to come by – even harder than food in some ways. Woodpiles were more often than not indoors, where they could be watched over and protected. What was more, any container capable of holding water so it could boil would be a treasure – something that wouldn't last long before it had been stolen to trade for coin by one of the others.

Finally, the last thing any of the homeless within the City walls needed was for a whiff of smoke to go up the well and alert those above to the fact that folks were living in the cistern. Such an event would cost all of them their shelter – and most likely wouldn't be allowed.

_I can't tell her that._

Instead, she just nodded.

_I'll figure it out later. Get the medicine first._

The old woman's face told Ivoreth very plainly that her answer wasn't entirely believable, but the woman sighed and nodded as she began to work the thin fabric bag between strong-looking fingers. "Very well. Take a pinch of this mixture into boiling water three times a day, just before eating. No more than a pinch. And keep your sister warm – any chills could make her much worse before the herbs have a chance to do their job." She began to hand over the bag, and then withdrew it and stuck out her empty hand. "Two coins please."

Ivoreth opened her fist and placed two of the precious coins on the counter, and then closed her fingers over the rest of her treasure and grabbed at the bag when it finally was offered within reach.

"Are you sure you wouldn't want a salve for your bruises? Only one coin…"

Ivoreth whirled and dashed out of the shop, the little bag of medicine just as precious as the two coins in her other hand. She didn't hesitate, but scampered across the street, ducking to avoid being stepped on by heavy-hooved cart horses and veering so as not to run into – or annoy – any of the merchants or craftsmen who filled the street. She saw one Guard give her a second look and skittered away under a slow-moving cart to duck into the first dark hole she could spot before he could decide to follow.

She waited as long as she dared, and then stuck her head out to see if the way was once again clear between her little refuge and the entrance to the drains. Ivoreth blinked in confusion as she discovered the street denizens contentedly cleared away from the center cobblestones and lined along the edges. A hail of horse hooves on cobblestone and a whisper of "The King comes!" that flew through the crowd brought her more out into the open to stare up the street with the rest. Curious, she pushed through the legs of those taller than she was until she stood on the very edge of the crowd.

_I want to see too!_

Ivoreth had never seen horses like the three walking down the middle of the street from above – they were dark, massive, powerful, proud beasts that had been groomed until their coats shimmered in the sunlight. None of them were controlled with reins; their silver-studded halters were there for obvious decoration and perhaps protection. And yet the three abreast stepped high at an equal pace with their fellows, as if knowing exactly what their riders wanted.

She held her breath as the trio came closer, and then Ivoreth's mouth dropped open slightly as her eyes moved from the awe-inspiring mounts to the men who rode. The King was as magnificent as all the stories about him had said; easily as tall as his companions, with shoulder-length dark hair only barely threaded with silver flowing freely about his shoulders from beneath a narrow circlet. His bearded face was stern and yet oddly kind as he smiled at the people along the street who cheered his name as he passed: "Elessar!"

_So this is what a King looks like!_

At each side of the King were two who were so much alike that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to tell them apart. Long ebony hair flowed down their backs to almost their waists, except for the way two braids on each side kept the locks controlled about the face. All three of the riders wore embroidered clothing, black boots that shined almost as brightly as the polished metal of their sword hilts, and rich cloaks that spread across the rumps of their mounts like blankets.

Ivoreth froze and felt her breath catch in recognition when she took a careful look at the proud and pale faces at the King's side. There was no question in her mind; one of these two riders was the Lord Elladan who had sat near her bed in the Healing Houses – the one who had decided she needed to go to the orphanage.

_I can't let him see me!_

But it was already too late. Grey-blue eyes, which had been mildly scanning the crowd, focused in on her sharply; and Ivoreth saw him lean toward the King and speak, pointing in her direction. The King then turned his head and pinned her for a long, breathless moment with a questioning grey stare. The third man – the one so like Lord Elladan – gazed at his companions for a second in confusion; and all the while, the gait of the horses slowed to almost a stop.

Finally Ivoreth's panic broke through her shock, and she pulled herself back behind the taller adults around her. Her eyes darted from one side to the other – she was on the wrong side of the street to flee into the storm drains! Desperate, she retreated to the narrow lane from which she had just come, hoping beyond hope that there would be one of the child-sized channels cut into the stone that normally helped direct the flow of rainwater toward the larger main storm drains. She could escape into a matching lane on the other side of the building through there. She'd done this before.

There! Ivoreth pushed herself into the tiny, dark space and scrabbled forward on hands and knees, caring only to make certain the little fabric bag and coins didn't get dropped in the process. At the midway point of the damp and narrow channel, there was a widening and a vertical gutter of sorts, where the water from the roofs above could find the channel leading to the main drains as well. With a frantic burst of energy, she pressed her back into the extra space left for the running water from above, and then dragged at the long skirt of her sleeping gown, pulling it in behind her and out of the sight of anybody looking down the little channel.

_What does he want with me? Is he angry because I took the candle and holder? I should have stayed in the shadows! The Guards from… Those Guards said they put arrows through thieves after they catch them and throw them in prison. Please don't let them find me…_

She worked at remaining motionless in the gutter until her legs were trembling from the strain of keeping herself pushed tightly against stone. Her ears strained for the slightest sound that would tell her that the Guards were just beyond the drain, searching for her – but she could hear nothing other than the whistle of the breeze high above her. At last her legs just couldn't hold her into the narrow space any longer, and Ivoreth let herself step out of her refuge with a sigh of defeat.

She dropped to her knees and looked madly back and forth between the two entrances to the drain, ready to scramble in the direction away from any one stationed to keep watch, but there was no sign of a single Guard. Taking no chances, however, she headed down the passage to the second lane and peeked out of the opening very cautiously. This entrance was partly protected by a stack of wooden crates, and she slowly crawled out of the channel and straightened again once she was certain it was safe.

Convinced at last from the lack of excitement or people pressing in that she had once more eluded capture, Ivoreth crept down the lane and peeked out into the main street. In the rapidly dimming sunlight, she could see that the throng that had stopped and gathered had since dispersed – and the amount of traffic in the street itself was already beginning to thin as darkness approached. A clear path to the storm drain opening beckoned, and after another cautious glance both up and down the street, Ivoreth dashed toward her refuge as fast as her legs would carry her.

She relaxed back against the curved wall of the drain entrance and let go a long breath of relief – and then lifted her hands to make certain her treasures were still safe. The coins were perfectly safe, although a little damp and grimed from her scrabble to hide. But she could hardly restrain a moan of desperation to find that the thin fabric of the little bag from the apothecary hadn't weathered the abuse she'd dealt it. The bag itself was damp and grimy, and the seam at the bottom had been torn open. The herbs were gone – lost in her flight from the King's Men.

It would cost the rest of her precious coin to replace them.

Ivoreth sank into a despondent crouch in the cool shadows of the drain, put her good arm over her head and cried.


	5. No Choice

Chapter 5 – No Choice

"Be careful, Dar!" Ivoreth's warning was in an intense hiss. The sun had yet to shine her light over the top of the wall, and so the orphanage trash heap was still covered in shadow. This didn't mean that others might not also have risen early – and be able to see the two of them poking through the smoking mess. The sooner they were away from this place, the better!

"I will," Daren smiled widely at her and then turned to begin digging where he stood.

Ivoreth bent as well, determined to find herself something better to wear than a thin gown from the Healing Houses as quickly as possible and get back to the cistern. There had been no choice but to leave the coins behind with Raini – although she doubted many would be willing to look through the baby's napkin for anything of value. She sighed. That was something else she'd have to do that day. Raini only had three pieces of cloth, and all of them now were at the very least smelly and wet.

"Ivo – over here!" Daren called to his sister in a soft voice. When Ivoreth turned, she saw him holding up a thoroughly ragged pair of trousers.

She hurried over and took the garment from him. Why they had been tossed was obvious – the back seam was almost completely split open, and what remained was dangerously worn. But they would have to do. She would keep some of the length of the gown and wear it like an undergarment – but only until she could find something in better shape. She sat down in the clearest spot and slipped the trousers on. They were loose on her – the extra padding of gown beneath them would help keep them on her, and perhaps tearing a strip from the bottom of the gown would make for enough of a belt to prevent accidents.

"These will do for now," she nodded at her little brother, smiling back as she saw how much the idea that he'd found something first had pleased him. She sat back down and pulled the trousers down to get at the bottom hem of the sleeping gown, which tore easily. She stuffed the gown down inside the trousers carefully and pulled them back up again, using the narrow strip of linen to pull the loose material tight to her waist.

"Here." Daren came up to her again, this time with a threadbare tunic in hand. "Try this too. Somebody must have got some new clothes."

It was perfect – the tunic was long enough to cover the gape in the back of the trousers and dingy enough to hide the white of the linen beneath. She carefully pulled her sore arm from the wrapping and put the tunic on, then put the bandage back and slipped her arm back into the comfortable cradle.

"Come on – let's get away from here." Ivoreth held out her good hand to her little brother. He was far too good at sorting through trash heaps, and not at all mindful of things going on around him. Being this close to an orphanage was a scary thing; and besides, the apothecary shop would open soon. She wanted that medicine back.

It was time to seek the shadows and get back to Raini, who had awakened that morning with a rasping sound in her breathing and cheeks blushing with fever. The little girl had finally eaten the rest of the soft part of the bread after a great deal of begging and pleading from Daren as well as Ivoreth, but had refused to do more than suck on the last piece of fruit – and finally dropped off to sleep again. Ivoreth had left her sitting up against the wall instead of curled down on the ledge like always because the coughing and rasping got worse when she was flat.

"Ivo?" Daren asked more loudly than the hour would find proper.

"Shhhh!" Ivoreth had the two of them backed into the darkness just outside the orphanage boundaries, waiting for a pair of servants from another residence nearby to leave so that they could head toward the outskirts of the City. "What is it?"

"Balil wants to take me out – teach me how to…"

"No!" Ivoreth whirled and shook a finger at her brother. "I don't want you going out with Balil. He takes too many chances."

"But he's good at it," Daren complained. "And he always has food – fresh food, that he got with the coin made in trade for what he finds."

"And if the Guards ever catch him breaking into rooms at the inns or people's homes, he'll hang. No." Ivoreth shook her head. "Some day, I'm going to have the coin to buy you a real position as a helper in an inn or stable. They don't take them what has been pegged as thieves."

"You do it," Daren stuck his chin out stubbornly. "You go to the inns sometimes…"

"I do it because I have to, Dar, not because I enjoy it." Ivoreth sighed, flattened her back into the shadow behind a set of crates and then turned to look down into a slightly angry and frustrated face.

How could she tell him that being forced to actually steal from an inn was even more dangerous than the little things she did on market day – that those caught in hired rooms going through other people's things were hung practically the day after they were caught.

"I do it now so that you and Raini don't have to later on – and I only do it when I have to. One day, when you have a real position somewhere that brings in regular coin, things will change and none of us will ever have to steal or snitch or cut pouch strings again." Her face folded into a scowl. "But that Balil – he likes the danger too much and takes chances he doesn't need to. One day, he'll make a mistake and get caught – and I don't want you anywhere close by at the time."

"I'd be more careful – honest!"

"No, Daren. If you want to help, then learn to watch what goes on around you. I can't even take you to market day because you forget to keep an eye on the Guards." Ivoreth shook her head.

"I'm learning…"

"Forget it - you're not going out with Balil." Ivoreth saw the quick scowl of rebellion. "I tell you what, though… I'll take you with me to next market day, and you can show me how careful you can be. If you can prove you know how to keep out of sight, I'll start letting you help a little – maybe snitch for us from the day-old rack outside Garlain's – fair enough?"

Daren scuffed the toe of his sandal in the dust between cobblestones. "I just want to help."

The wistful tone always managed to make Ivoreth catch her breath. "I know you do, Dar. It's just…" She crouched down in front of him. "I have to take care of you – keep you safe. Da and Nan would have wanted me to, and I can't do that if you're out with Balil." She let her worry paint her face with a frown. "What would I do if I lost you too?" Her breath caught. "I already lost Evi…"

Daren threw his arms around his big sister's neck. "You won't lose me, Ivo. I promise."

Ivoreth held her little brother close. "No, I won't Dar."

_I can't. _

oOoOo

"Promise me you'll stay close to the drain. I don't want you to try anything. Remember – I've promised to take you to market day. But only if you don't do anything between now and then."

"I will, Ivo – I just want to be warm in the sun for a while." Daren's face was open and smiling. It wasn't often that his big sister would let him play in the mouth of the drain with some of the other boys his age. One of them had taken rotten cloth from one of the many trash heaps and tied it all together into a small ball that they would stand in a small circle and use ankles and knees to keep in the air.

Ivoreth patted her little brother on the head. He'd done well – he deserved a little time to be a child. "Remember, stay close to the drain and don't go anywhere else." She watched him trot off to join his friends. As she watched, they settled in a relatively quiet corner of the street near the Gate, where masons had not long before rebuilt a wall and began their game – and their laughter.

_He deserves some happy times. I wish I could give him more._

She walked through the storm drain rubbing her sore shoulder, which had been aching for the better part of the morning.

_It probably wasn't a great idea to take it out of the bandage to put the tunic on._

The moment she entered the cistern, however, she knew something was wrong. There was a low moaning from the heights, and several in the opening moved aside as if to avoid contact with her.

_That's funny – they usually just shove me aside._

With hope in her step, she began climbing the stairs to the ledge. All she had to do was get the coins and buy more medicine for Raini. _Then_ she'd figure out how to get some boiling water to put it in. She reached the ledge and turned right to head to her little sister, and then stopped cold in utter shock. She turned and looked at the faces of the people on either side of the niche that had been their home in the cistern. None could meet her gaze.

_Who would have done such a thing? _

With a cry of dismay, she hurried over and hastily pulled off the bandage from her arm and wrapped it around the nude body of her little sister. Raini shivered violently and moaned before letting loose with a horrid, grinding cough and then leaning into her big sister's warmth. Ivoreth looked all over the narrow space that she and her brother and sister had laid claim to, but the blanket had vanished too – and there was no sign of who had taken it. Even the sad pile of soggy napkins was scattered.

_Who would have guessed the coins were there? Who knew there even _were _coins?_

Again Ivoreth looked around her at the others who shared the ledge with her, holding her little sister tightly to her. Several couldn't look her in the eye, and turned away to their own business the moment they noticed her looking at them in horror and confusion. Her mind spun wildly with the enormity of her loss and what looked to be sure to follow. There would be no medicine for Raini. And her little sister was worse – much worse.

Ivoreth knew in her heart that she had once more failed, and this time, her sister's death would be all _her_ fault.

oOoOo

She'd lost track of time, sitting on the cold ledge slowly rocking her little sister back and forth and holding her close when she coughed. She'd cried until she had no more tears left, and then settled back against the cold stone to be with her sister for whatever time she had left. Raini lay limply against her shoulder now, her grinding breaths coming slower and with more effort – and the heat from her fever poured through the thin wrapping of bandaging, making Ivoreth's skin sweat under the tunic.

Filled with a hopelessness that had taken almost every bit of energy from her, Ivoreth finally raised her head to look around. The sky above the cistern had darkened, and only what little light from the moon high overhead poured through the well opening. Around her, she could hear the rustling and coughing of the others who were settling in for the evening. And then it hit her:

_Where's Daren?_

Her mind suddenly slipped into sharp focus. Her little brother, who had gone out to play ball with other cistern boys, hadn't returned to the ledge. He wasn't sitting huddled into her side the way he normally would during the nights, hiding from the deep darkness of night that he feared so much.

"Daren?" she called quietly, hearing the echo of her call return to her from across the water.

"He's taken, Ivo."

Wide-eyed, Ivoreth turned to look at Jarem, who had appeared at the edge of the ledge in front of her. "What?" she asked, her mind not accepting what it had heard.

He shuffled his feet. "The way I hear it, Garlain complained to the Guard about losing so much of his day-old bread – and then pointed out Bran, Samul, Davit and Daren as the most likely thieves." Jarem looked as if he'd been weeping himself. He had only had the one brother, and Samul was only six years old – a year younger than Daren.

"Taken? Where?" Ivoreth whispered, not really wanting to hear the answer.

Jarem shrugged in the dim reflected moonlight. "Those who were there said that Garith told the Guard they were orphans – so they're probably sent off to one of those places. Or prison – it really doesn't matter, does it?"

_Oh, Daren! Not you too!_

"What are we going to do?" She stared at the older boy, for once wanting to hear someone else make a decision for her.

Jarem just shrugged again and sighed deeply. "What _can_ we do? The Guards have them – they're gone." He brushed aside a tear angrily, and then turned away from her. "Take care of Raini, Ivo. She sounds real bad." He shuffled away toward his own space halfway around the cistern from the stairs.

_This isn't real. This is a bad dream – and all I have to do is wake up! Please!_

But she didn't awaken. This wasn't a dream - it was a waking nightmare.

She numbly rocked Raini through another long coughing spell, her entire world – what little of it had been left her – in tatters about her. She'd thought she'd cried all her tears. She'd been wrong.

_Daren taken. Evien dead. Raini dying. I can't do this anymore…_

Slowly she got to her feet. There was nothing left for her to do – nothing except take the very small chance that someone could help Raini. But not here. The only ones who might help were up on Sixth Circle, in the Healing Houses that Da said weren't for folk like her. Up where grand folk like Lord Elladan asked for trust on the one hand and then tried to have her tossed into an orphanage on the other.

_I have no choice anymore. I don't want Raini to die. They can take me away – I don't care what happens to me anymore – but Raini deserves a chance to live._

Her steps were slow. She knew she was walking right into the same kind of trap that had reached out and claimed her little brother. But it didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was getting Raini to someone who could help her live. Surely they wouldn't turn their backs on a sick baby, or force a sick three-year-old to be a slave.

_They wouldn't be _that_ cruel, would they?_

It was a long walk back up the sloping streets to Sixth Circle – long and dangerous. She heard the curfew bell from the Citadel ring just after passing through the gate to the Third Circle. The streets were empty now, except for patrolling Guards and deep shadows. Habit and two years of experience kept her carefully hidden until the way was clear for her to move forward, and then she would move as quickly as she could.

At the Sixth Circle gate, she had to wait until a fight broke out in the inn before the Guards would move from their posts. She had noticed little during her climb except that the higher she went in the city, the more alert and watchful the Guards seemed. She worried about her little sister giving away their position with her coughing, but by the Fifth Circle, however, Raini wasn't coughing anymore. Ivoreth was both very grateful and terrified. Her little sister was dead weight against her, her little head lying lifelessly on her shoulder.

_What if she dies before I can get her to the Healing Houses?_

All too many times, the pain in her sore arm had grown back into a stabbing agony, and Ivoreth had felt as if she were about to drop her sister. At that point, she would have to find a friendly shadow in which to crouch down and rest her arms for a few minutes before putting Raini back up on the hip and shoulder and starting up the hill again , biting her lip to keep from crying out herself. But with all the handling and moving about, Raini hadn't roused at all – or even whimpered.

Once finally inside the Sixth Circle, Ivoreth looked at the darkened shadows that were the houses along the way with confusion and worry.

_How do I tell which House is the Healing House? They all look the same!_

She struggled to remember just how far she had had to come before going through the Sixth Gate when she'd run away from the Healing Houses – but all she could remember was that she'd come down some distance before arriving at the gate. The gate to the garden outside the Healing Houses had been wooden and overgrown with vines. Ivoreth ducked into the shadow of a gate to wait while the Sixth Circle patrol walked slowly past her, her heart beginning to pound painfully. Her progress from that point on was slow.

_I don't know what to do – which House to go to! If I choose wrong, Raini will die!_

The scent of flowers from beyond the gate she stood in front of now gently caught her attention, and she took a long, deep breath. Was this the same, sweet smell that had surrounded her while she'd been in the garden, looking for the gate? Was _this_ the House she wanted? Nearing the point of exhaustion, and her arm only barely wanting to support any weight at all, she squatted to renew her hold on her sister, and then straightened again. Raini was barely breathing.

_I have no choice – and no time. _

She felt the edges of the gate until she found the hole and the chain that dangled through it – and pulled. The gate opened on nearly silent hinges, and Ivoreth stepped through and closed it behind her with a foot. There was a door in the house that stood open to the garden, and the inside was lit with the warm light from a candle. As Ivoreth looked, she could see that several of the windows that looked out over the gardens had lights softly glowing from somewhere within.

Ivoreth closed her eyes for a moment.

_All-Father, let me have made the right choice!_

Taking a deep breath and very deliberately not letting herself think of anything other than getting help for her sister, Ivoreth walked toward the door – and then through it into an open hallway. Confused and uncertain which way to go, she froze for a moment and listened.

Not far away she could hear the sound of men's voices – and with her heart pounding so hard in her chest that she thought it might burst, she aimed her steps in that direction down a hallway lined with closed doors except for one. As she neared the open door, she knew fear again, for one of the voices was very familiar. Ivoreth peeked around the corner and had her fears confirmed – for the one standing and working at a bandage around the chest of another seated man had very long, black hair braided back on either side of his face and beautiful grey-blue eyes.

He was smiling.

He said something in a teasing tone in a beautiful, musical language as he finished the final knot to the man with his back to the door. The man replied in the same tongue with a low chuckle as he reached out for his shirt, draped over a nearby chair.

Ivoreth took a step into the room and called forth all her courage.

_I can do this – for Raini._

"Lord Elladan?" she said in a very small voice.

Grey-blue eyes glanced up and over at the door, and then down to discover who had called – and then turned intense with concern. "Merciful Estë!"

The other man turned and stared – and Ivoreth stared back.

_Is this the King? Was he hurt? No – this man doesn't have any silver hair…_

The grand one she remembered so clearly strode over to Ivoreth with steps so swift and powerful that she flinched back hard and had to steel herself to keep herself from turning and running back the way she'd come. Instead, she looked up into those beautiful grey-blue eyes as bravely as she dared. "Help her – please?"

Ivoreth watched with astonishment as he sank to his knees next to her and very carefully took Raini from her arms, frowning at what he saw and felt. The little girl heaved a noisy breath at being handled and then begin coughing in a way that Ivoreth was sure was tearing her insides apart. He looked back at her, his gaze intense. "She's very sick, little one."

_I know that._

"Can you help her?" It was the only question that mattered.

Without answering, he rose to his full height and spoke briskly in the musical language to the man he'd been bandaging, and then whirled toward the door. "Follow me," he told her and swept from the room. Ivoreth blinked and then followed at a run – there was no way she was going to let him disappear with her little sister, even if he was a Lord and spent time with the King himself! He wasn't to be trusted – except perhaps as a healer.

He had called out several times as he'd strode down the hallway, and Ivoreth saw one woman wearing the grey gowns of the healers start toward them while another rushed away in the other direction. He didn't go far before he pushed open another of the closed doors and walked in. Ivoreth followed him in, and then pushed herself into a nearby corner as the healer followed her in. She folded her arms about herself defensively, but kept her eyes fixed on her sister.

He already had Raini lying on a high bed and was unwrapping her. The moment the little girl was naked, she began a high-pitched cry that was completely different from any sound Raini normally made. The Lord hushed at Raini in that gentle, musical language of his, and then took one of the fluffy cloths offered to him by the healer and wrapped her up again. He bent and listened to her chest, his face stern and worried.

While the first healer bent to build a fire in the small hearth, a second healer came in bearing a basin of steaming water. The Lord took a smaller, fluffy cloth and dipped it in the warm water and washed Raini's face very tenderly. The sight brought tears to Ivoreth's eyes, for she could remember her Da doing that long ago. Raini roused slightly, and then whimpered at the sight of strangers. But her energy to complain ran out quickly, and her eyes drooped and then closed again.

He snapped an order at the first healer, who immediately straightened and left the room – only to return a few moments later with a steaming mug that smelled of a bitter tea.

_Is that the medicine the apothecary gave me before?_

"How long has she been like this?" he asked in a gentle tone as he poured a little of the tea from the mug into a flat dish and blew on it to cool it before using a spoon to try to give it to Raini.

"She started coughing a few days ago – but she's had a little fever for over a week. She got worse today." Ivoreth began to shiver with the realization that Raini _was_ going to get the help she needed. "Will she be all right?"

"She has the lung fever, little one – and is very sick, as I told you." The intense grey-blue gaze sought out Ivoreth in her misery. "I cannot promise anything yet, but I have summoned one who is a much better healer than I. He should be here soon."

Ivoreth nodded her understanding and bit her lip. She looked around the room nervously.

_When will the Guards get here? Has he not called them yet?_

Knowing that her time was short, she decided to ask the next most important thing. "Promise me…" The grey-blue gaze came up to meet hers immediately, and Ivoreth's courage failed for a moment before she could summon it up again. "Promise me she won't be sold as a slave?"

His face softened into confusion. "A slave? Why would you think such a thing?"

Ivoreth closed her eyes, accepting her fate. "I don't care what happens to me – I know I'm a thief and will go to prison and die – but Raini's just a baby. She's not done anything wrong, and she deserves a chance…"

"Little one…" the gentle, musical voice began in a tone of complaint, and then halted when another sound invaded the House.

Clanking metal told Ivoreth that her time was indeed almost up. They were coming for her. Her arms tightened around herself in an attempt to stop the hard shuddering from showing.

_I knew what would happen when I brought her here. All that matters is that Raini get better. One of us _has_ to live!_

She swallowed hard when the clanking stopped just outside the doorway – and then into the room swept a new person, one whose very face made Ivoreth's mouth drop open in surprise and shock.

It was the King – the _real_ King this time, complete with fine circlet, silver hair mixed into the dark and fancy robes.

_What's he doing here?_


	6. Houses of Healing

Chapter 6 – Houses of Healing

The King spoke the same musical language as the grand one, but in a deep and ringing voice; and after giving direction to the first healer, moved to look down on Raini. Another basin of steaming water was fetched – and this time, the King reached into a small, red pouch at his belt and pulled out two small leaves. He cupped them in his hands, breathed on them, and then crushed them slightly before tossing them in the basin. The room immediately filled with a fresh, clean scent that even had Ivoreth looking up in surprise.

Whatever the smell was, it made Raini take a deep breath and then immediately begin to cough again. The King frowned and then, as the other had done before, bent to listen at her chest. The two had a quick, quiet discussion in the musical language, and then the King gave another soft order that had both healers rushing from the room – Ivoreth guessed to bring something else. She was beyond disbelief – Raini was getting help from the King himself!

_Maybe she'll live after all!_

If she had thought herself surprised before, she stared when the King once more unwrapped Raini and, with another fluffy cloth dipped in the steaming water that smelled so wonderful, began bathing her completely. Even more strangely, the one she had come seeking had begun to softly sing a song that, while Ivoreth couldn't understand the words, made her think of bright stars and gentle breezes. Unable to keep tears from falling from her eyes, Ivoreth crouched down in her corner, folding herself into the smallest ball she could and throwing her good arm over her head again.

Something wonderful was happening – and it was for Raini, not her. Her part in protecting her little sister was over. She might not trust Lord Elladan, but all the stories told that Elessar was a fair and kind King – and if he were there now, giving her little sister a bath, surely he would see to it that nothing bad happened to her. In him she could trust just enough to let go.

She felt movement around her, but didn't look up to see who had come into the room. It wasn't until a new scent met her nose that she raised her head only to gape again. King Elessar was sitting in a chair next to the high bed with Raini in his arms, now dressed in much smaller version of the sleeping gown that she herself had been given, and was rocking her gently with his grey eyes closed. The other grand man was still singing softly, but now his grey-blue eyes were on _her_. Ivoreth blushed and ducked her head under her arm again.

Ivoreth sighed as the gentle song came to an end. For a few minutes, she could have believed that life could be beautiful – but now it was over. She heard the two men confer again, and then felt one of them come close to her.

"Look at me, child."

The King's deep voice was gentle, but it obviously expected to be obeyed. Ivoreth pulled her arm down and looked into warm grey that shone with caring. Yes, Elessar was a man she could trust.

"She will live – it will be a while, and she will need to stay here, but she will run and play again."

_She doesn't remember ever doing that. It was always too dangerous to let her run and play on the ledge._

But he didn't need to know that. "Thank you." Ivoreth couldn't bring her voice to make a sound, so she whispered her gratitude. Then, knowing there to be nothing else to be said, lowered her head and pulled her good arm over it again. She was ready for the Guards now.

"No, look at me." The King pushed her arm back down and used a finger to raise Ivoreth's chin up again. "Look at me," he insisted again, and Ivoreth opened her eyes once more. "Where are your parents that you and your sister are in such a state?"

"Dead," Ivoreth answered in a flat voice.

"How long?"

She tried to look away, but a firm but gentle finger beneath her chin wouldn't allow it. "Since the siege."

The King's eyes looked pained. "And who has taken care of you since then?"

Ivoreth felt her guilt weigh her down.

_Daren. Evien._

"I did – or I tried to."

"And is this why you say you're a thief – because you tried to take care of your sister?"

Ivoreth tried to avoid the silver gaze to no avail. She nodded and closed her eyes.

_I did what I had to do to keep us all alive for as long as I could. I'd do it again._

"And now you think you're going to go to prison – or be killed."

Again she nodded, this time with a shudder.

_This is what happens to thieves. And the King agrees._

The finger left her chin, allowing her to retreat into herself. She'd disappointed him, she just knew it. And as much as she knew she'd had no choice in the matter, his disappointment hurt almost as much as her Nan's would have.

_It doesn't matter. They can do to me what they want – as long as Raini is safe._

The last thing Ivoreth expected was to suddenly find herself lifted up. She opened her eyes in shock to find herself borne in the arms of the King, who was settling himself back down in the chair where he'd been sitting with Raini. She looked across the room in confusion, only to find the grand one sitting in a second chair that had appeared from nowhere while she hadn't been looking; and he was cradling Raini in his arms, patiently spooning more of the medicine tea into her and rocking her when she coughed.

She looked back up into the face of the King, lost and afraid, and was greeted with a gentle smile and a warm, grey gaze. "You're safe now," Elessar told her, and a gentle hand pulled her head to his shoulder. "Nobody wishes to harm you. Be at peace, little one. Rest. You've earned it."

Ivoreth relaxed as a wave of utter calm washed over and through her. She could hear the King's deep voice ringing inside her head, urging her to rest. She closed her eyes. It had been a long time since she'd been able to truly sleep…

oOoOo

Ivoreth floated gently awake. She was warm and comfortable; and from the coughing, she could tell Raini was somewhere nearby. And yet, she felt empty inside – hollow, as if everything that had given her reason to move forward had been scoured away. She opened her eyes and found herself wondering if she'd slipped backwards in time.

The room looked much like the one in which she had awakened almost a lifetime ago. Stone walls surrounded her, and a window stood open on the far wall to let in the light of the sun and the sounds of the City. Ivoreth turned her head and saw that Raini was in the other bed in the room, propped high on a stack of pillows and resting better than she had for days. Another slight shift of the head gave her a view of the quiet woman in grey who sat in the chair between the beds and then smiled to see her looking back. There was the low chest between the beds, complete with pitcher and ewer, candle and candleholder, and the low stack of folded cloth.

Ivoreth could feel that her sore arm was once again bound to her chest, and she glanced down to see that she'd been dressed in another clean linen sleeping gown before she'd been placed between the covers of her bed. Were it not for the empty feeling inside, she would have stretched and let herself enjoy the warmth and comfort – but now, all she could think of was Daren and Evien – and the way she'd disappointed not only the King, but her Nan. She turned her head to the wall and closed her eyes, wishing she could go to sleep and just not wake up again.

But sleep wouldn't come. Long moments of quiet stretched into each other, and Ivoreth found herself thinking of her brother and sister who were lost to her. She'd tried – she really had – to hold her little family together. But it had all been for nothing. Evien had died, Daren had been caught by the Guards and taken away. She hadn't even been able to take care of Raini properly. She'd lost the medicine – and then had been forced to bring her up the hill to the Houses of Healing before that little sister died too. And now that Raini was under Lord Elladan's and the King's care and doing so much better, there was nothing left for her to do, no reason for her to be here. There was nothing for her to do, that is, but give over what was left of her life into the keeping of the Guards – who, if they were at all merciful, would make a quick end of her.

_Why don't they just come for me and get it over with?_

The edge of her bed dipped as someone sat down, but Ivoreth kept her eyes closed and her face turned away.

_Maybe whoever it is will go away._

"My brother told me that the young one I'd rescued from the rogue Guards had shown up again last night, asking for me, and now Mareth tells me you're awake." It was Lord Elladan. "So I had to see how you are faring this morning."

_What does he mean, his brother told him I'd come back again? That _wasn't_ him? _

Ivoreth's heart skipped a beat as she vaguely remembered _two_ identical riders on either side of the King.

_Who helped Raini last night, if _not _Lord Elladan?_

"No, none of this now..." A large hand reached out and gently pulled her face back to the center of the room. "I know you can hear me. Open your eyes."

_I don't want to. Go away._

"Open your eyes and look at me, little one. I want to talk to you." the musical voice urged, in a tone that was so like the King's – expecting to be obeyed. Ivoreth opened her eyes, but when she tried to feel angry at the interruption, all she could find was the hollow feeling inside. It was useless. She'd do as she was told, and nothing more. She had energy for nothing more, and nothing important to say to anyone anymore.

"Good morning." The hand remained against her cheek. "Can you tell me your name?"

_It doesn't matter._

"I don't want to keep calling you 'little one'. I know you must have a name…" The grand one was smiling at her, and the look in his eyes pleaded for her trust as it had before. "Is it such hard thing to do – to tell me your name?"

"Ivoreth," she sighed at last, giving in. At least, when they called her to the scaffold to hang for her crimes, they could call her by name.

"Ivoreth," Lord Elladan repeated, his accent giving the sounds an unusual twist. "I am Elladan, and I'm glad you came back. You worried me – and then, when I saw you in the City, you ran away. I didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon, frankly."

"Raini was dying." Ivoreth stated the simple truth. "I had no choice but to come."

The healer who had probably left to summon Lord Elladan chose to return at that moment, carrying a tray covered with a small square of cloth. This time, however, the smell of the rich soup did little but turn Ivoreth's stomach. Lord Elladan pulled her forward into his chest, as he had done before, and shifted the pillows around so that she could sit up in bed. He took charge of the tray from the healer, placing it on Ivoreth's lap as before and tucked the cloth into the neck of her gown. Ivoreth couldn't even summon the energy to flinch from his touch.

"You can eat while we talk. It will do you good."

"I'm not hungry." Ivoreth turned her face to the wall again.

The large hand was back at her cheek again, bring her back to face him again. "Yes, you are. My brother tells me he could count your ribs when he dressed you last night. You need to eat."

Ivoreth rebelled in the only way she could – she kept her eyes closed. "I don't want it."

_Leave me alone._

The large hand smoothed back her hair from her face. "You are too young to know this kind of despair."

She simply pressed her lips together and remained silent. There was nothing he could do to change what had gone before – Evien would still be dead, and Daren still gone.

The musical voice continued, "You need to get your strength back. Your sister needs you."

"No she doesn't," slipped out before Ivoreth could control her tongue. But once it was said, it was like a weight dropping away to have the truth out in the open. "Just promise me she'll never be sold into slavery."

"She will never be a slave, Ivoreth – such things aren't allowed in Gondor. You should know this."

_Lies!_

At last Ivoreth had a reason to summon the strength to open her eyes and glare. "My Da was sold as a slave from an orphanage here in the City when he was a boy. He wore the scars from the beatings he got until the day he…." Her throat closed down before she could finish the though, and she closed her eyes and turned away again. "It doesn't matter anymore anyway," she choked out. "Just promise me."

"Very well." The hand took one of hers and held it tightly. "I don't know what happened to your _adar_, Ivoreth; but if it will make you feel better, I give you my oath that your little sister will only have the best of care. She will never be mere property to be bought, sold or traded away, and she will know herself loved and cherished – as will you."

She shook her head. "Not me. I'm a thief – the Guards will come for me soon."

"Why would they come for you? Have you stolen anything?"

_He didn't know? They didn't tell him?_

"A blanket, and a candle and candle holder – the first night I was here," she whispered. "I'm sorry. I needed the coin for medicine, and it gets cold…" She couldn't continue.

"Ah!" A second hand joined the first, imprisoning hers. "And for that, you believe the Guards are going to come take you away to the gallows?"

Ivoreth nodded and swallowed hard.

"And yet, my brother told me that the King himself told you that you were safe, did he not?" He paused and waited for an answer, and Ivoreth finally gave a tiny nod. "Do you believe the King would lie to you this way – give you false hope and comfort only to turn around and hand you over to the Guards?"

She opened her eyes wide at that, and then slowly shook her head. She hadn't thought of _that_. If Elessar truly were as great as all the stories, he wouldn't do that.

_Would he?_

Lord Elladan smiled at her. "Then set aside your worries, Ivoreth. Eat and get your strength back – you will need it for when the healers want you to take a larger role in taking care of your sister." He took one of the pieces of bread and tore it in two, and then soaked up some of the rich broth before holding it out. "Eat."

Ivoreth looked from the dark brown-soaked bread to the beautiful grey-blue eyes and shook her head again. "I'm not hungry," she repeated dully.

_I don't deserve it – and Raini doesn't need me anymore anyway._

His gaze grew intense, and Ivoreth wondered if he knew how to see down into the very deepest, darkest corners of her soul. "There is more to this, isn't there." It wasn't a question.

She closed her eyes and turned her face away.

_Just leave me alone._

She felt the tray being removed from her lap and be placed on the low chest not far away. Large hands landed on her shoulders and pulled her forward again to lay against soft, rich fabric, and then strong arms wrapped around her to hold her close. He began to sing softly, his voice obviously meant only for her; and even though she once more could understand nothing of what he sang, her mind filled with the images of green trees, gentle breezes and clear, running water. It was an aching beauty that soon had her shuddering in a futile desire to run far away into such a view – or to go looking for her little brother behind some hidden bush.

One arm tightened around her, and the other large hand gently stroked her hair as her head lay against the rich robe. The song changed slightly, and the images in Ivoreth's mind slowly changed to a clear night with stars sparkling like jewels overhead and a moon giving everything below a soft, silver glow. It was an image that poured peace and calm like a soothing balm over the open wounds that had drained her of all but either agony or emptiness.

Ivoreth took a long, deep breath, and let herself slip away into the gentle vision – and with no reason to stay in the moment, she was soon asleep again.


	7. Breaking Point

She roused with the scent of flowers and tangy herbs in her nose and with the feel of soft fabric over a hard and yet moving surface beneath her cheeks. Her face was warm, and a strong and gentle arm was wrapped around her, holding her close. A small squeal and then a grinding cough convinced Ivoreth to open her eyes, and then she stiffened.

She was in a garden, nestled into the lap of Lord Elladan – at least, she _thought_ it was Lord Elladan – with Raini in her little white gown looking about with an expression of pure wonder. The little child gamely tottered to the edge of the blanket that had been spread on the grass in a patch of warm sunlight, and then she squatted and patted at the green leaflets with another small squeal of delight. Ivoreth felt another of her worrisome burdens fall away as she noted that her little sister was much improved – the coughing, while still there, was much less distressing, and the rasping sounds with every breath had become almost too soft to hear.

Raini turned a pleased little face to the one on whose lap Ivoreth was cradled, and then smiled even wider when she saw her big sister's eyes open and watching her. "Ivo! See!" She squatted down and patted the grass again with the flats of her hand. "It's soft!"

Ivoreth lifted her head slightly and then shifted, grateful that the arm that held her close loosened so that she had the freedom to do as she would. "I see, Raini," she replied softly and then found herself wishing she had the energy to smile as her little sister tottered off the edge of the blanket and landed on her bottom on the soft, green grass with another squeal of glee, followed by another cough.

_How different it is here from the stone of the ledge!_

"It's such a pretty day, I couldn't see keeping either of you indoors," the deep, musical voice rumbled down at her. "All children need to be in the sun to grow strong and straight. We can't keep her outside too long – she needs to save much of her strength for getting better – but a little time in a garden and in the sun can't hurt."

Ivoreth forced herself to relax back against Lord Elladan's chest, content to simply watch from there as her little sister roamed and explored and discovered this new world. She wasn't wandering far – years spent on a high ledge being nagged and bullied into staying close to the outer wall and her older brother or sister had taught her not to stray out of reach – but Raini was enjoying her limited freedom greatly.

"I think that you need the sun and time in this garden every bit as much as she does, Ivoreth," he continued after a short pause. "I think you've forgotten that life can be simple and sweet – something to be enjoyed and treasured, and shared with a little sister." He laughed as Raini found a tiny clover flower from within the green grass and brought it up to her nose – then reached out his free arm to steady and then gather in the child as she came close to offer her new friend the flower.

"Thank you, sweetling," he told her in a tone so warm that it made Ivoreth shiver in remembrance of her Da's voice.

_I won't cry anymore._

"Do you see?" Lord Elladan asked Ivoreth with a gentle voice after he'd helped Raini clamber up not only on his leg, but then into Ivoreth's lap to snuggle down against her big sister. "She needs you very much."

Ivoreth sighed and put her arm around her little sister in much the same way Lord Elladan had his arm around her. It was oddly comforting to have Raini coming to her again the way she always had – to have her little head tucked underneath her chin. The empty, hollow feeling suddenly echoed as if someone had dropped a pebble into the cistern chamber when nobody was there.

_Daren. He should be here._

She sighed again, missing desperately the pressure of another head pressed against her arm. Somehow, all was incomplete now with that piece of her family gone forever.

Lord Elladan said something in his musical language, and a gentle, grey-gowned healer approached and carefully took a now sleepy Raini from Ivoreth's arms. Ivoreth sighed a very tiny complaint, but was otherwise silent as the healer let the little girl's head nestle down on her shoulder and then carried her away, murmuring softly at the child. With Raini now gone, Ivoreth sagged limply against the Lord's chest. All reason for her to put forth energy had vanished with the healer.

"I think you need your sister very much as well," Lord Elladan continued his gentle one-sided discussion, "perhaps even more right now than she needs you. Her illness is a matter of the body and fairly easily remedied with medicine, proper food and care – yours is something far more difficult to address, mostly because you hold your pain inside and share it with no one."

_If he would just stop talking, I could go back to sleep._

"And so I find myself wondering if it has always been just you and Raini. The serious illness of a very young child, while grievous, is certainly not enough to put such a dark cloud over your spirit; so there must be another involved somewhere. Do you have any other brothers or sisters?"

Ivoreth flinched hard and then shook her head quickly against the hard chest.

The arm about her tightened slightly, and a large hand came up to stroke her hair again. "A younger brother or sister perhaps? One who is no longer with you?"

_Stop!_

Ivoreth drew in a quick gasp and clenched her eyes closed. She shook her head more vigorously against the chest, trying not to care about the pain that exploded in her face when she bumped her nose against hard body beneath the soft cloth.

"Talk to me, Ivoreth."

_NO!_

She began to struggle to get free of the confining arm. She couldn't stay here – didn't want to be pushed and prodded. She didn't want to tell him about Daren – or Evien. She didn't want to _think_ about them – it hurt too much.

"No, little one. No more running away." Lord Elladan's arm was as strong as steel and wouldn't give an inch. He pulled her in even closer. "Stop," he warned sternly, "or you'll hurt yourself."

_Let me go! Don't make me think about them!_

Ivoreth fought the bands of steel about her until her meager supply of energy was gone, and then she fell back against Lord Elladan's chest with a swallowed sob. Her arm ached badly from where she'd tried to twist out of his grasp, her nose once more felt heavy on her face, and her heart was pounding painfully in her ears. Emotions she no longer had the energy to hold back threatened to overwhelm her, and she could no longer control the trembling that began in the center of her chest and spread outward.

"Hush!" Lord Elladan began rocking her back and forth. "Let go, Ivoreth. You're safe now – you need not carry this burden alone anymore."

"I can't!" she cried softly. If she let go, she would shatter.

"Yes, you can," Lord Elladan told her gently, his lips near her ear. "You don't have to be strong anymore – nobody is going to think less of you. You've done more than most your age…"

"But…" Ivoreth squeezed her eyes closed, amazed that even now there were tears wanting to come forth. "But… I lost them…" she finally managed, her voice falling into almost a howl of despair.

"Lost who, little one?" Lord Elladan asked softly. "When?"

"They forced me to take her out in the rain."

"Who, sweetling?"

"Evien." She whispered the name and found herself clutching at the rich fabric she was laying against. "She died…" Ivoreth hiccoughed and then began to weep. "And then Daren…"

"He died too?"

She shook her head slowly, the trembling growing stronger. "The Guards took him – and he wasn't even doing anything wrong…" She took a painfully deep breath. "I couldn't take care of them right – couldn't even get the medicine for Raini without losing it – and they're gone now. And it's all… my fault…"

All of a sudden, the dam inside her broke. Ivoreth's sobs were deep, as if her very soul were ripping into shreds. Her utter failure was now out, and there was nowhere left to hide. Even had Lord Elladan allowed her to do so, throwing an arm over her head and curling herself into a tiny ball would not protect her anymore from her many mistakes that had cost others their lives.

But the arms about her were gentle despite being strong, and the rocking motion didn't increase or cease. As the storm slowed, she found herself clutching the soft fabric of the Lord's robe as if it were the only thing holding her in place. The tears kept coming, but Ivoreth was completely spent – and she rested quietly against the hard chest and the tear-soaked robe.

"There now, little one," Lord Elladan murmured to her as he continued to rock her once the worst of the emotional storm was past. "Such a burden you've carried! To lose a brother and a sister, as well as your parents, is a heavy load of grief for one so young as you to bear. Hush!"

Ivoreth began to shiver again from the sensation that all warmth had left her. She could no longer feel the warmth of the sun on her face, or gather any warmth through the Lord's robes into her body. She felt Lord Elladan turn and aim a low statement at someone unseen, and in very little time, a soft blanket was wrapped around her and tucked in carefully. Still she shivered until her teeth chattered together helplessly.

Lord Elladan rose and carried her back into the hallway and then to a room with smooth, rapid steps. A fire had been build back up again, and he seated himself very close to it with her still held in his arms. "All will be well, Ivoreth," he soothed and aimed another command over Ivoreth's head.

A long moment later, Ivoreth felt the touch of a heavy mug against her lips. "Drink," Lord Elladan told her firmly. "This will warm you."

Ivoreth let the warm liquid slip over her lips and down her throat, even though it felt as if it burned all the way to her stomach. It did indeed warm her, but the taste was bitter. Exhausted, however, she had no strength to resist. The mug remained at her lips until it had been tipped all the way back, and she had drained all of its contents.

"Sleep now," Lord Elladan whispered at her softly. "And when you awaken next time, you will be better – even if you may not believe so at the time."

Having no energy to do anything but let go and trust for the very first time, Ivoreth once more let go of her hold on reality and tipped over into a warm and soothing darkness.

oOoOo

The sound of a child's voice penetrated the darkness between dreams and caught at Ivoreth's attention. "I wan' Ivo!"

"Your sister's sleeping," was the whispered reply. "She's been ill, like you have, and…"

"I wan' Ivo!" Raini whimpered and then coughed.

"Raini?" Ivoreth roused just enough to answer, but not enough to open her eyes. "Come here, my Raini-Day girl." She put out her good arm in the direction of her sister's voice.

There was a rustling of cloth, the chill of blankets being drawn back, and then the squirming body of her little sister was snuggling into the hollow of her good arm. Ivoreth shifted so that she could wrap that good arm around her sister and hold her close to keep her warm, and then sighed as the warm blankets settled once more over them both.

"You sick?" Raini asked in a worried voice.

"I'm fine," Ivoreth soothed her and brushed her sister's forehead with her lips. "Go back to sleep."

Raini settled down almost at once. Ivoreth took a deep breath and tried to let go of her hold on the world again. Raini was safe next to her; she was warm and comfortable. All was right with the…

_Daren._

Ivoreth felt the ache that was the empty spot against her arm that her little brother would snuggle into, but it wasn't a soul-killing agony. All was not completely right with the world after all, but for the moment, it was enough that she had Raini next to her safe, warm and getting better. She listened carefully to the sound of her sister's breathing and knew a little relief when there were no rasping breaths to go with the coughs.

_We're going to live – for now. I guess._

She refused to let her mind tackle the question of what would happen to them once Raini was well enough to leave the Houses of Healing. She just couldn't face the darkness of what was to come right now. It was bad enough to be forced to deal with the reality of the darknesses that still lingered close to her heart. Lord Elladan had given his word, however, that Raini wouldn't be sold – and with so little hope otherwise, Ivoreth was forced to trust that he'd keep his word.

The warmth and the warm little bundle that was a sleeping Raini were working their magic on her, however. Ivoreth soon gave another deep sigh and settled back down into the dreams from which she had emerged.


	8. Introductions

Chapter 8 - Introductions

Ivoreth stared into the bowl of rich-smelling broth for a moment and then dipped the piece of bread in her hand into it until it had soaked up as much as it could. In her lap, Raini squirmed in anticipation – her little sister dearly loved the soup, especially when sopped up into the fresh, soft bread. Such fare had brought the life back into her face and the sparkle back into her eyes – and even now the cough that had sounded so horrible was almost completely gone.

Raini took the dripping bread from her hand and popped it into her mouth, smacking her delight. "It's good, Ivo."

"I know, Raini-Day Sunshine girl," Ivoreth agreed with her sister. The broth really was very good.

"Your turn." Raini reached out for the plate of bread and dipped another piece in the bowl before offering it up. "Open."

"I'm not that hungry," Ivoreth shook her head. "You take it."

"You not hungry?" Raini asked in a worried voice. "You not feeling good?"

"I'm fine – I'm just not hungry."

Raini popped the bread into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully, giving Ivoreth a chance to think.

This was the eighth day she had spent with her little sister in the Houses of Healing – and she knew her time here was rapidly drawing to a close. Raini was much better; her cough was light and much less often, and the good food and shelter had worked wonders. Bringing her sister here had been worth it.

But Ivoreth had no doubts as to one very possible future for both her and her sister. Lord Elladan, as much as she might wish she could trust him more than she did, had tried to have the warden of orphanages take charge of her once before. She had no doubt that he would do the same again, believing it to be the best thing for her. He knew her objections – they had once had a long talk about what had happened to her Da – but his assurances that such a thing would never happen again were less than convincing. He hadn't seen the scars and hadn't heard the tone of voice Da had used when speaking of those evil times.

The only thing she knew for certain was that she didn't dare take Raini away from the Houses. The Lord had promised that Raini would never be sold like her Da had been – and the look of horror that had been on his face while talking about her Da's stories had been enough to make her trust that he'd not allow anything like that to happen to Raini. He had grown fond of the little girl – that much was obvious in the expression of caring and openness that he showed during outings to the garden. Watching such a great one as he playing simple games of catch or I-hide-you-seek-me with a toddler had almost been enough to bring a smile to her face. Almost.

The thought of returning to the cistern alone, of returning to the chore of picking through the trash heaps of inns and residences for her food, was enough to make Ivoreth's stomach turn over. Dreaming of the long, cold nights on the ledge amid so many others like her had all too often lately brought her up out of a deep sleep with a soft cry. And yet, Ivoreth knew that it was either return to the cistern or allow herself to be taken away to an orphanage – and no amount of reassurances from Lord Elladan would ever talk her into doing that.

For the last two days, such worries had been robbing her of her enjoyment of the food or even the ability to relax when Lord Elladan would haul her up into his lap while sitting in the garden and sing to her. She would miss that. Those moments could almost convince her that she too was cared for – that someone genuinely wanted her around. But at no point was she completely convinced.

Even the looks of the some of the healers, when they didn't think she was watching, told the tale all too clearly. She was too tainted by the things she'd had to do to survive. She was a thief – one of those far beneath those who would normally belong here – tolerated only because someone somewhere had bent a rule or something to let her and her sister in. Even if she had been given a royal pardon, she knew what she'd done to survive – and so did everyone else.

Raini polished off the last of the fruit wedges by herself, and Ivoreth carried her to the bath area to wash off her hands and relieve herself before putting her sister to bed.

"You're sad today, Ivo?" Riani's dark eyes studied her big sister closely.

"I'm a little tired, Raini, that's all," Ivoreth answered her. It wasn't exactly a lie; trying to keep up a happy mood in the face of such unsettling thoughts and bad dreams was very wearing. She picked up her little sister and arranged the little sleeping gown while she carried her back to the bedroom. "I'll be better after I get a chance to nap."

Raini looked up at Ivoreth from her pillow. "E'dan come today!"

"I know." This would be the second day since his last visit, and he rarely went two days without at least stopping by. "You need to take a nice nap so that you'll have lots of energy to run around the garden when he gets here."

"You gonna nap too, Ivo?"

Ivoreth bent down and kissed her little sister on the forehead. "After a bit, Raini." She gave her a gentle push that put her on her feet. "Close your eyes now."

Raini trustingly closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and Ivoreth sat on the edge of the bed and sat down to wait for her breathing to become soft and even. Finally the little girl rolled to her side and dropped away into slumber. Ivoreth smoothed back some of the dark blonde hair that no longer looked like mud-covered straw.

_She's well again, and Lord Elladan has promised she will never be treated like Da was. She deserves a better life than I can give her. She's safer here._

Ivoreth looked around the room. How easy it had been to grow accustomed to living in such luxury – of having warm food brought three times a day and having a clean, warm bed to curl up in at night. How easy it had been to merely sit back and watch as the grey-gowned assistants had carried trays, changed bed linens, or cleaned bathing chambers. It had been too easy to get used to – but this wasn't the way her life was supposed to be. She had to get away before she forgot herself completely.

Thanks to her taking the time to wander the Houses of Healing a little during some of the midday naptimes, Ivoreth had found the little room where the healers and their helpers stowed their distinctive grey gowns. It would take very little effort to sneak down the hallway, snitch a gown that looked like it would fit, and then slip away in the evening after Raini fell asleep. She didn't dare let herself feel guilty about the idea of stealing from folks who had been so kind to her – it was once more a case of doing what she had to.

_Wasn't it?_

Movement at her door brought her head up in surprise. Lord Elladan – or Lord Elrohir, Ivoreth still hadn't figured out a way to tell the two apart yet – peered into the room, his eyes on the sleeping child. Ivoreth very carefully rose from her seat and walked over to him. "She just dropped off to sleep," she whispered.

He nodded. "That's just as well. I wanted a chance to talk to you alone anyway." He turned to look over his shoulder and gestured with his nose. "Liriel will watch over her for us." He held out his hand. "Would you like to walk with me?"

_What's he going to do? Where's he taking me?_

Ivoreth wordlessly slipped her hand into his and then walked quietly at his side. The Lord really was very tall – taller than almost any other person she knew other than his brother. She studied his face quickly, and felt her stomach tighten at the look of tension. "Where are we going?" she asked finally in a small voice, as they came to the end of the corridor and began to go down the stairs.

"There is someone I want you to meet," he told her with a sideways glance. "I've spoken of you to her several times, and she insisted she meet you today."

Ivoreth slowed her steps, and her hand in his dragged him eventually to a stop. "Who is she?" she asked warily.

_It's the warden of orphanages. I knew this was going to happen._

"Her name is Celebriel, and she is a very good friend of mine," he replied and then turned Ivoreth to look at him. "I think the two of you will get along very well. Don't be afraid, little one – she is one of the sweetest people I know."

_I have to leave tonight then! He's already preparing me to go – if he isn't going to hand me over to this woman right now…_

Ivoreth forced a small smile onto her face. "All right," she said, hoping that the shiver that was starting deep inside her wasn't too obvious in her voice.

"You know, I don't normally live here in your city," he informed her in a friendly tone. "My brother and I come from far away to the north. We will be going back to our home soon."

_He's going away, and that's why he's turning us over to the orphanage!_

Ivoreth nodded and worked hard not to let her disappointment and fear bring tears to her eyes. That would give her away at once. She would have to pretend to like this woman, and then get away as soon as it was dark.

And she would have to take Raini with her after all. He was going to break his word to her. She just _knew_ it.

"Here we are." He moved behind Ivoreth and put both hands on her shoulders. "Celebriel, I would like you to meet Ivoreth. Ivoreth, this is one of my oldest and dearest friends, Celebriel."

"Hello, Ivoreth. Elladan has told me so much about you."

Ivoreth couldn't help staring. The woman was tall, beautiful and very slender, and moved with the same kind of grace that Lord Elladan did. Her gown was of a light and flowing material that moved with every breath of air and twitch of muscle, and her hair was a glowing fall of silver-blonde past her waist that was pulled back at the temples with shining combs. Her eyes were a brilliant blue-green, and Ivoreth could feel herself drawn to the calm of the woman's spirit in her gaze. Ivoreth's own eyes widened in shock, however, when she saw that the beautiful woman's ears ended in delicate points, and she turned to stare up at the Lord in frantic question. It was at that moment that she finally saw _his_ ears.

"Yes," he replied with an amused look on his face, "We are _edhil_ - Elves."

Ivoreth turned back to the beautiful woman and gave what she hoped was a decent curtsey. Never in her wildest dreams had she ever thought to actually meet one of the Fair Folk of the bedtime stories. She sidled closer to her escort's leg, choosing to cling to the familiar and think about the rest of it later.

"Come here," Celebriel put out a delicate, long-fingered hand to her. "Let me look at you."

Ivoreth shot another frightened, questioning look at the Lord, who merely smiled and nodded. "It's all right, Ivoreth. She won't harm you."

Celebriel took charge of Ivoreth's hand and pulled her forward, giving her escort a sharp look of concern before turning her entire attention back to the girl. "Have they been taking good care of you here, _nethben_?"

_What is a "nethben"? _

Ivoreth nodded wordlessly. The beautiful woman ran a gentle hand up her arm and then cupped her cheek. "You're still much too thin, poor sweetling. And frightened too, right?"

_How does she know?_

It took work not to flinch; and the moment the hand had dropped away, Ivoreth had backed up against the grand Lord again. When his hands once more landed on her shoulders, the relief was staggering.

"This child is terrified, Elladan. Does she have the slightest idea what you're planning?" Celebriel asked Lord Elladan sharply. "Have you any idea how much of a change you're suggesting she go through here – or whether she's even able to contemplate it, much less handle it? What have you told her?"

"You came earlier than I had anticipated," he answered, his hands rubbing across Ivoreth's shoulders in a movement that, under other circumstances, would have been soothing. "So no, I haven't had a chance to prepare her yet. I was going to talk to her about it this afternoon – and give her the evening to think about it before introducing you. I told you I needed time to put things in motion – but you insisted…"

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you," Celebriel conceded. "I never thought…" She dropped to her knees in front of Ivoreth. "I didn't mean to frighten you so, _nethben_. I have just been so excited to meet you. Forgive me?"

_Forgive her? For what? For wanting to take me away to an orphanage?_

Ivoreth blinked once and then turned her face into Lord Elladan's side and closed her eyes.

"What about the other little one?" Celebriel was asking now. "Is she as fragile as Ivoreth?"

"Not at all," Lord Elladan replied, a hand falling to Ivoreth's shoulder again and holding her close to him. "But then, she's still too young to really have been affected emotionally by everything she's been through. Ivoreth did a very good job protecting her from that until the very end, when things just moved past her ability to cope."

_He thought I did a _good_ job? But Evien died – and Daren was taken! I failed…_

"I'll leave you to talk to Ivoreth, then – and I'm sorry I disrupted the process." Ivoreth heard the soft whisper of the fine gown as the elleth rose to her full height once more. "I'm really glad to meet you, and I'll be back to see you again, Ivoreth. We have a lot to talk about, once Elladan has a chance to tell you what's going to happen."

Ivoreth felt a soft touch at the top of her head, and then the sound of very light footsteps walking away. Lord Elladan immediately dropped to one knee and turned her to face him. "Look at me, Ivoreth," he demanded gently.

Slowly she raised her eyes to look at him, ready to dismiss anything he said as a lie to get her to do as he wanted. Why, oh why had she let herself believe that he cared about Raini?

"You know that Raini's gotten better – and she's well enough now that she doesn't need to be here in the Houses – right?"

Ivoreth nodded. That was nothing more or less than what she'd already figured out on her own. No doubt the healers were pushing to get the two of them removed as well.

_We don't belong here – we never have._

"And you know that there's no way that I'd let you take her back to wherever it was you had her before – that you both need good food and shelter, and that when I promised you I'd make sure she was taken care of, it meant I wouldn't let her go back to the hard life you had before." His grey-blue gaze bore into her.

She nodded again. Yes, she could see him understand the promise he'd given her in that way.

"Then you must know that I've been thinking about the best way to make certain that you and Raini are taken care of properly."

A tear began to roll down Ivoreth's cheek – one she dashed away quickly with an angry, visibly shaking hand.

_Here it comes._

"What the…" Lord Elladan's face paled at the sight of that tear. "No, no… Merciful Elbereth – you didn't think…" His arms suddenly swept out and gathered Ivoreth close to him and held her tightly. "None of this has to do with any orphanages, Ivoreth. I made you a promise – I fully intend to keep it."

_What?!_

_Sindarin Vocabulary_

_edhil - Elves (sing. edhel)_

_nethben - little one_


	9. Transitions

Chapter 9 - Transitions

_This is a dream – this isn't real. I will wake up again, and this will all go away. I'll be back on the ledge in the cistern._

Ivoreth ran her hand in the grass just beyond the blanket absently, watching Lord Elladan play with Raini. The little girl was laughing wildly as the man would swing her up high in the air and then swoop her down almost to the ground. Every once in a while, he would glance over in her direction with an expression of warmth that would both comfort and confuse her. Beside her on the blanket sat Lord Elrohir, whose quiet support was in the form of an arm wrapped around her shoulders over the top of a thin blanket and a solid chest to lean against while sitting in the sun.

She still couldn't believe it. Lord Elladan had told her that he couldn't bear the thought of leaving her and Raini behind in Minas Tirith without knowing where they would end up or how they would live. His promise to her, as well as knowing her attitude toward orphanages, meant that he couldn't place either of them there and then hope that all would work out well. And with no real way of finding a new home for her himself before the time came to leave, he had decided to take them with him to his home far to the north. He had spoken to his brother about it over the course of the last two days, and Elrohir had eventually agreed with him.

And so it was that after shocking her in the downstairs sitting room of the Houses of Healing, he had taken her to the apartment he shared with his brother; and there the two of them had talked to her about what they hoped would happen. Celebriel, a good friend of theirs, had agreed to watch over them when Lord Elladan wasn't available – both during the long trip north and afterwards. Later that afternoon, Ivoreth and Raini would be measured for new clothes, to be made for them before they left. By the time this trip to the garden was over, a room of their own in Lord Elladan's residence would be ready for them. They would not be returning to their room in the Houses of Healing.

_This doesn't happen to folks like us._

In the wink of an eye, Ivoreth had gone from a poor orphan to a fosterling of a Lord, and evidently word was spreading. When the three of them had stopped to pick up Raini for her trip to the garden, the healer Liriel had given her just the slightest nod of the head in respect – the first time Ivoreth had ever seen that gesture made in _her_ direction. She'd stared, not knowing quite how to respond, until Elrohir had draped the thin blanket from Raini's bed about her shoulders and steered her out the door past the healer.

Raini, of course, had been delighted to see her new friend, running up to him without fear and clinging to a leg until lifted high into the air and then settled on a hip. The look of joy and welcome on Lord Elladan's face as he caught up her little sister in his arms had added to the sense of being caught up in a dream.

"This is good for him," Lord Elrohir said quietly, his voice very gently pulling her concentration away from the others. "It will be good for Imladris. Too long has it been since we've had the sound of children's laughter in our halls, and we will need that joy to sustain us when our father finally departs these lands." A large hand smoothed away rebellious locks of hair. "And it will be good for you – a place far away from all that has caused you grief, where it will be safe to learn to laugh and trust again. Your sister will never know the sadness you have – that should lift your spirits."

Ivoreth drew in a long breath. Yes, it would be good to get away from here, with all the bad memories. Just the thought that she never would have to go back to the cistern again was a huge weight from her shoulders. That Raini would never need to understand the desperation that was living that close to the end of everything was a dream come true.

The only regret she had – the only regret she would ever have in leaving the White City, and one that would stay with her for the rest of her life – would be not to know what had happened to Daren.

_Is he even still alive – or have they already put his back to the wall and an arrow through him?_

"There is one who would speak to you before you leave, however, about how and where you survived these long years since your father died," Elrohir continued, and Ivoreth drew herself away a little and looked up at him. "My sister worries that there may be others like you, children so fearful of what might await them in an orphanage that they feel they must hide and steal to survive. She wants to help them – and she'll need _your_ help to do so."

"Your sister?" Ivoreth blinked her surprise.

Lord Elrohir smiled down at her. "She has listened to Elladan's stories about you as well, you know – and she supported his decision to take you two as his fosterlings. She spent long hours trying to reorganize the orphanages, once there was peace – I think your Da's stories pointing to a history of ill treatment of the children entrusted to those places came as a shock. Among our people, such a thing is unthinkable. The idea that there might be more children out there, others suffering as you and Raini suffered, is of great concern to her."

She leaned back against the hard chest again with another long sigh. This was all too unreal. It _had_ to be a dream.

Nobody_ listens to the words of an orphan – a thief_.

"Will you help her?"

Ivoreth blinked, her mind suddenly called back to the topic of Lord Elrohir's conversation.

_Help who? Lord Elladan's sister? He's really serious?_

"I'll tell her as much as I can," Ivoreth agreed reluctantly, "but I can't tell her where we were. I won't…" She caught back the rest of her statement. Just the admitting to the fact that there were indeed others was already a partial betrayal.

The large hand smoothed her hair again. "That's all that is asked, little one. But would you not want to help those who were with you to better their futures too?"

"Not if it means turning them over to an orphanage!" slipped out in a bitter, biting tone before she could think better of it. She cringed, waiting for the harsh words and blows that were her usual payment for such insolence. The last time she'd talked back to anyone in that way, she'd been thrown into a wall – and before that, using that tone with any adult, including her Da, had usually earned her a scolding and either a slap or a heavy cuff that would drive her to the floor.

"Shhhh…" Lord Elrohir's arm about her shoulder tightened slightly. "Nobody would ask that of you – especially if they were aware of the nature of the stories you heard when you were younger."

Slowly Ivoreth relaxed again as Lord Elrohir showed no signs of striking her or even speaking sternly to her, and finally she closed her eyes and leaned again as his free hand kept on stroking her hair slowly. Out in the garden, Raini laughed again, and Lord Elladan laughed with her.

_He's being too nice. Life is never this good. This _has_ to be a dream. _

_Please don't let me wake up!_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Daren!"

Ivoreth came straight up in her bed, her heart pounding and her eyes searching the darkness wildly. Then she slowly lay back down against her comfortable pillow and pulled the soft, warm blanket over her shoulders. After a few moments of being unable to prevent the tears from welling up, she rolled to one side and clenched her eyes shut tight.

_Only a dream!_

It had seemed so real – she could see her little brother in a small group of boys off in the distance. She'd waved, but he hadn't seen her; and so she had begun running. But the harder she ran, the further away Daren had become. Finally, she had seen a Guard come from behind the group and, with a drawn sword, begin herding the boys away from her. When the sword had begun swinging, she had awakened.

For three nights, now, she'd had the same dream. And for three nights, she hadn't been able to go back to sleep, for fear of seeing the consequences of that swinging sword. For the first time in her life, Ivoreth found herself praying that Daren had been taken off to an orphanage and then sold – at least _then_ he'd still be alive. And if Da's tales were the truth, the chance to run away and make a better life for himself would come someday. But if the sword's swing were final…

No. She wouldn't even consider that.

Ivoreth heard the door to the bedroom she shared with her sister open quietly, and she knew there was a low light entering the room through her closed eyelids. A weight settled on the bed next to her. "Another bad dream?" asked a musical voice in a whisper. She nodded, rolled toward her visitor and opened her eyes.

She was sure she would never get used to the idea that someone actually cared enough to hear her when she cried out and come to see that she was all right, much less that this person would pull her up into warm arms and hold her close. And yet, for each of the nights that her dreams had brought her straight up in bed with a cry, Lord Elladan had come in to her soon after she awoke and, with a hug and a shoulder to lean on, given her comfort. He didn't tell her that she was just being silly for getting so upset over a dream – he just held her close and made her feel safe.

And, as he had each of the previous times, he asked about the dream. "Won't you tell me about it?" he whispered into her ear, this time adding, "How can I help you if you won't tell me what it is that breaks your sleep this way?"

_You can't help me – you can't bring Daren back._

Ivoreth slowly moved her arms to encircle Lord Elladan's neck and clung. "Daren," was all she could manage before her throat closed down on her.

"Tell me." The arms tightened. "Nothing can harm you now – tell me what you saw in your dream."

Slowly, painfully, Ivoreth told him her nightmare, finding that remembering the details was almost as bad as dreaming them again. Finally she just buried her nose under Lord Elladan's chin. "I miss him," she choked out.

"I know you do, little one," Lord Elladan told her gently. "And I wish I could tell you that he's safe and secure where he is. It is not knowing that is the worst, I think – you have all the time in the world to think up all the most horrible things that could happen."

"Yes…" she agreed, her voice quivering.

_He _does_ understand!_

"Why do I keep dreaming the same thing every night?" Ivoreth asked after a long moment.

"Because that is when your mind is quiet enough that all your fears and worries can visit you without being interrupted," he explained in a soft voice, "and because that is when you are most open for your imagination to run away with you." She felt him loosened his hold and pulled her away from him a little so that he could look into her face. "But talking about your fears with someone else can help. Every time you face your worries and fears enough to speak of them robs them of a little bit of their power to interrupt your sleep."

She searched his face for signs that he was just telling her stories – and found only an open expression of fondness and concern. "Do you ever have bad dreams?" she asked with a small voice.

"Oh yes!" Lord Elladan pulled her back to him. "Once, long ago, my dreams were truly terrifying," he admitted. "Everyone has times like that, Ivoreth. But over time, my dreams slowly went away – and yours will too."

"I don't want to forget Daren," Ivoreth complained softly.

"You won't, sweetling," he soothed. "But one day, the sad memories will only give you a dull ache, rather than make you suffer as you do now – and you will begin to be able to remember other things that were better."

_I don't want to remember. I want Daren._

"Lord Elladan?"

"Just Elladan, Ivoreth. Such formality shouldn't exist between members of a family."

That thought, stated in such simple, gentle terms, took Ivoreth's breath away.

_Family. He considers me family?_

"You wished to ask me something?" he whispered when Ivoreth didn't continue.

"Family?" she whispered in wonder.

"Yes, family," he replied, his voice smiling. "I am your foster father now."

"But…" Ivoreth pushed herself away this time so that she could look up into what she could see of his face in the candlelight. "Why me? Why Raini?"

"Because you were the ones that Eru put in my path," Elladan answered simply. "It was you that those Guards were attacking – and then you came to find me when Raini became too ill for you to take care of her. And the more I got to know you and your sister, the more fond I grew of you – until finally, I couldn't just leave you two behind, not knowing what would happen to you." He smoothed her hair back from her face. "Do you understand?"

_No, I don't. But I'm glad you chose us!_

Ivoreth leaned forward again and gave a small smile when she felt the arms close around her as she nestled her nose beneath his chin again. Family! She wasn't alone anymore. She closed her eyes and felt safer in that moment than she had since before her Da had died.

_I just wish Daren were here to share this. He deserves a chance._


	10. To The Citadel

Chapter 10 – To The Citadel

Ivoreth hung onto Elrohir's hand tightly as they walked the last few paces up the ramp and turned left into the wide courtyard at the very top of the city. Stories of the White Tree had been whispered late at night by those who claimed to have seen it, but nothing prepared her for the sight of the little tree in the grand courtyard, standing proudly green in the midst of it's square of garden grass. The large fountain beside it sent the sound of falling water over the area, adding to the feeling of peace and security to be found there – and Ivoreth would have been very happy to wait there patiently while Elladan and his brother visited their sister without her.

She heard Raini give a gasp; she turned to see what was wrong and then followed her sister's awestruck gaze out between two of the towers at the edge of the world at the sights below. Before her stretched a sight she'd never imagined before – green fields and mountains in the distance beneath a gentle blue sky. She was so caught up in the sight that her steps slowed, and her hesitation forced Elrohir to look down at her, first in concern and then in amusement. "It is magnificent, isn't it?" he chuckled.

Ivoreth couldn't begin to put words to what she was seeing, and so just nodded with her mouth still open in shock. A gentle tug on her hand soon brought her attention back to watching where she was being taken. Behind the White Tree, a tall tower stood guard over the entire city, and she twisted her neck to peer up at its heights. The base of the tower was all of white stone, with figures of people carved into shallow alcoves all along the sides. They all looked so sad and serious, staring out into the distance, Ivoreth decided – although what they stared out _at_ was more wonderful than anything she'd ever seen.

They went around the tower toward yet another huge building, this one with an ornate front and what looked to be gardens to both the left and right. At either side of the heavy doorway, Guards in gleaming armor held long spears crossed to stop anyone from entering. Ivoreth swallowed hard as they came closer, but Elladan didn't hesitate. At a single word, the Guards pulled in their weapons to allow the little group entry into a quiet hallway of dark wooden walls covered with richly colorful tapestries and sometimes a statue in front of a window. Elladan greeted a man dressed in elegant black and silver, and then they all followed him down the hallway and up a set of wide stairs into a comfortable room with windows that overlooked one of the side gardens.

The woman who rose to greet them caught Ivoreth's attention and held it spellbound. Tall and slender as Celebriel, but with dark hair instead of the shimmering silver, she moved toward them with quick steps. "I'm so glad you've come!" she exclaimed. She put her arm around Elrohir and hugged him tightly before repeating the gesture with Elladan. She tucked a finger under Raini's chin. "What a precious child!" she said in a voice that reminded Ivoreth of a bell's chiming, and then kissed Raini on the cheek.

"And this is Ivoreth," Elladan turned after freeing his hand from his sister and putting it out for Ivoreth to come take. Elrohir loosed his hold on Ivoreth and gave her a slight nudge to get her to go to her foster father. "Ivoreth, this is my sister, Arwen."

_Arwen? Where have I heard that name before?_

Remembering the way some of the servants at Elladan's apartments acted, Ivoreth gave a clumsy curtsey and then looked up into blue-grey eyes very much like her foster-father's.

"Ivoreth." Arwen put out a hand in invitation; and after a quick glance up at Elladan for his reassuring nod, Ivoreth stepped forward and put herself into the beautiful lady's control. "Elladan has told me so much about you. I'm glad to meet you before he takes you away."

Completely at a loss as to how to answer, Ivoreth blushed and studied the way the tips of her slippers poked out from beneath the hem of her fancy new gown that had arrived only just the evening before.

"Come. Sit with me." The beautiful lady drew Ivoreth over to a lightly cushioned couch to sit side by side, and then with a deceptively strong arm, pulled her close to her side. "She is still very thin, brother," she remarked to Elladan, who had seated himself in a comfortable chair near the broad hearth.

"She was much, much thinner – starving, really – when she entered the Houses of Healing, Arwen. Since then, she's slowly been getting stronger," Elladan replied with a smile for Ivoreth after loosing Raini to toddle over to a window and stare out onto the garden. "Father's cooks will have a field day tempting her to try new things, however – which will be good. They need a new challenge every few decades."

"So, what do you think of your new home?" Arwen turned her attention to Ivoreth. "Have my brothers made sure that you have everything you and Raini need?"

"Yes," Ivoreth smiled and nodded. She had everything she needed and more now - warm food in her stomach several times a day and a warm and safe place to sleep at night.

"Do you know," Arwen began in a very friendly tone, wrapping her arm about Ivoreth's shoulder, "that I am in charge of the orphanages that my brother tells me frighten you so badly."

Ivoreth cringed. _You are? _She shot a desperate look at Elladan. _I thought we were family! You promised!_

"She's _still_ terrified of them," Elladan spoke for her firmly, and let his fond gaze answer the desperation in Ivoreth. "She's not going to take you away from me, little one."

"Remember, we talked about this yesterday?" Elrohir added. "I told you that she wanted to help any others trapped like you and Raini were?"

_Oh yes. I remember now._

"Oh, Ivoreth! I would never take you away from my brother!" Arwen exclaimed with a shake of the head. "Besides, orphanages are supposed to help those with no one. You have a new father and a family now to take care of you."

The relief from Arwen's reassurance was almost crushing. Ivoreth swallowed back the sob pushing up into her throat and forced herself to keep her eyes focused on her hands folded in her lap. Arwen's arms pulled her into an embrace. "I never dreamed that anyone would be so afraid of getting the help they needed. After Elladan told me some of the stories you said your father told you, I spoke to Faramir, our Steward, and he found the records of the trial of two orphanage wardens who were doing exactly what your father's stories told of. They ended up exiled from the city and doing hard labor for many years."

Ivoreth pulled away to raise her head and stare at the beautiful lady. "They were judged for that?"

Arwen nodded. "What they did was monstrous, Ivoreth. The orphanages are my responsibility, and I have made certain that all of the wardens understand that the mistreatment of any children in their care will be most harshly punished."

"So…" Ivoreth's mind struggled to accept what she was being told. "Nobody is sold as a slave?"

Arwen shook her head. "No – at least, not to my knowledge. If I ever found out that anyone had purchased a child, I would seek out that person and reclaim the child immediately. If the child has been mistreated, then the one who paid for them will also be punished. Slavery is illegal in Gondor – and it will not be tolerated when discovered. I can understand that you and some of the other children have been frightened because of what came before, but I've done everything I could to make certain it never happens again. Do you see?"

_Who is she that she can do such things? I thought the Queen was in charge of the orphanages._

Ivoreth nodded after a long moment of thinking. If what Elladan's sister said was true, then maybe they didn't need to be so afraid down in the cistern anymore.

"So," Arwen continued, "can you also understand that I want to help any other children who are afraid to go to the orphanages for help?"

Ivoreth nodded again. She seemed such a wise as well as beautiful lady – and she didn't look as if she were telling stories just to put her off her guard.

"How many others are there?" Arwen asked softly.

Ivoreth looked away to her hands again. "Some…" she replied vaguely.

"How do they live? What do they eat?"

Ivoreth began picking at a spot on the palm of one hand. "We… they… steal sometimes… or pick through the trash piles when people aren't watching."

"Don't they get caught?" Arwen asked with a slight frown.

_Daren!_

Ivoreth nodded silently and sniffed. Across from her, she heard Elladan shift in his chair and knew that he understood what she was thinking.

"Did you have someplace to stay – some kind of shelter?"

Again Ivoreth nodded wordlessly.

"Where?"

This time, she shook her head slowly.

_You're very nice, and I think you really do want to help – but you just don't understand what it's like for us… for them. They have nowhere else to go, and no reason to trust anything you say._

"I swear to you that nobody will harm them or take them away. Won't you please tell me where they are?" Arwen's tone was soft and wistful.

Ivoreth slowly looked up and into concerned blue-grey. Arwen seemed so very sincere, she couldn't just not answer her. "They won't understand, and they won't stay around to listen to what you have to say. The only time anybody pays attention to us is when they think we've done something wrong. Then they call the Guards, and they take us away to prison to die." She looked back down at her hands again. "Nobody wants us or wants to listen to us."

Arwen grasped both of Ivoreth's hands and squeezed. "But you see, I _do_ want to listen – to help."

Ivoreth nodded slowly, feeling torn. "I can't… I just can't." She had the horrible feeling that even though she was protecting Jarem and the others in one way, she was betraying them in another – and the weight of that choice was a heavy one. There _was_ no good choice.

"Perhaps we're going at this the wrong way," Elrohir finally offered from where he had leaned his arm on the mantle over the hearth. "If these children – and they are just children, are they not, Ivoreth?" Ivoreth nodded. "Then, if these children have no way of trusting any obvious help from any adults, is there some indirect way in which we could reach them one by one – maybe just to improve their situation enough that they can begin to trust again?"

"We could make certain they had at least enough to eat. If they didn't feel they had to steal just to survive, they wouldn't have to fear the Guards taking them away," Elladan offered after a moment to consider.

"The Guards don't always have to have a reason," Ivoreth said bitterly. "They took Daren away just because Garlain pointed to him and said he'd stolen some of his bread. All he was doing was playing with a group of his friends in a corner – I saw them just before…" Her throat thickened again, and she began to cry. "The Guards always believe what the adults tell them, even when it's a lie – and they don't care about what we have to say. And then, we never hear or see them again. And then Raini was so sick…"

Elladan was on his knee in front of her. "Ivoreth! Little one! I thought that Daren was lost to you long ago. You mean to say that this happened just a little while ago?" Ivoreth leaned forward into his arms, put her head on his shoulder and nodded. "How long ago, sweetling?"

"The day I brought Raini up because she was sick." Ivoreth hid her face in Elladan's hair. "I found out somebody snitched the coins for Raini's medicine – and the Jarem came and told me that Daren had been taken with Samul and the others. That night, Raini got so bad…" She shuddered, remembering the horror of that day – the decision to give up her own life to save at least one of her brothers and sisters.

"Merciful Elbereth!" Elladan wrapped her in his arms and held her close. "No wonder…"

"Beloved," Arwen's ringing voice sounded, and then Ivoreth felt the beautiful lady rising her feet and moving to greet someone who had come into the room behind Elladan.

"What is going on here? I thought this was going to be a friendly family get-together," a voice even deeper and richer than Elladan's exclaimed in surprise. "I was expecting a midday meal with a happy family. Arwen…"

Stunned out of her tears, Ivoreth raised her head to stare at Arwen standing in the arms of the King, who was staring back at her in surprise and concern. Gone were the rich robes and the circlet – Elessar looked no greater or more powerful than Elladan or Elrohir.

"Ivo sad?" Raini toddled away from her window and toward her big sister.

"It seems there has been a misunderstanding, Estel," Elrohir stated as he moved forward to catch Raini. "Ivoreth is all right, Raini – she's just worried about Daren."

"Daren gone," Raini said, her little face falling. "Guards make dead." She leaned her head against Elrohir's shoulder sadly.

Ivoreth shuddered again in Elladan's arms.

Elessar frowned. "Who is Daren?"

"Daren is Ivoreth's little brother," Arwen stated helpfully. "Remember, Elladan told us that the girl he was helping had other brothers and sisters who hadn't survived. He thought that Daren had been taken by Guards a long time ago – but evidently it happened recently, only a little over ten days ago. "

"How quickly does justice happen for little boys taken by the Guards for petty theft – and just what _is_ the penalty?" Elladan demanded between efforts to console Ivoreth.

Elessar cast his hands out. "I have no idea – I've never needed to know before now. When I was here years ago, I was more concerned with keeping the city safe from attack – not overseeing the court system."

"Then the child might still be locked away?" Elrohir asked pointedly.

Ivoreth raised her head from Elladan's shoulder to look pleadingly at the King. "He might still be alive?" she breathed, barely daring to hope.

Elessar came closer to her. "He must be. Gondor doesn't kill her children. How old was the boy, anyway?"

"Seven," she whispered.

_They do too kill children. They do it all the time. _

"And he was taken away for stealing?" the King pressed on.

Ivoreth nodded. "Garlain complained that he… we… were taking his day-old bread. But Daren wouldn't…" She paused, certain that she wouldn't be believed this time. "I never let him do any of that – he wasn't careful about watching for the Guards. But he was good at going through the trash piles." Her voice shone with pride for the way her little brother had helped the three of them survive. "He found clothes for us sometimes."

Elessar was frowning now, and Ivoreth shrank back into her guardian's shoulder. "You're telling me that it's possible this child was taken away without having done anything to deserve… This seven-year-old child…"

"They picked up four of them," Ivoreth told him in a small voice. "Samul is six, Bran and Davit were seven, like Daren." The look in Elessar's eyes scared her badly. "I'm sorry…" she whispered and hid her face in Elladan's hair again.

"Estel, you're frightening the girl!" Arwen scolded and came back to her seat to rub small circles on Ivoreth's back.

"I'm…" Elessar hesitated for a moment, and whirled to leave the room abruptly.

"Did I do something wrong again?" Ivoreth asked, resigning herself to whatever punishment the King might have in store for her.

In Elrohir's arms, Raini squirmed in an attempt to get to her big sister and whimpered when she remained caught in a firm but gentle hold. "Wan' Ivo!" she insisted, beginning to cry. "Ivo need me."

_What have I done?_


	11. What Price Justice?

Chapter 11 – What Price Justice

Ivoreth sidled close to her foster-father's leg as they came closer and closer to the City Gate and the humble bakery three doors away. In the doorway, as always, Garlain stood calling out his sales chant into the street: "Fresh bread, new today! Penny a loaf!. Fresh bread today!" A slightly ragged looking matron approached the door, and the baker escorted her inside with a fancy wave of his hand.

"Is that the place, Ivoreth?" Elladan asked just loudly enough to be heard over the noise of the street traffic. She nodded.

_I can't believe that I'm back here._

"Come along, then." He tightened his hold on her hand and led the way right up to the bakery door. Ivoreth swallowed hard against the twisting of her stomach at the scent of new-baked bread. How often she'd found reason to lean against a nearby wall just to drool at the thought of tasting such wonderful food – and now, all she wanted to do was run away as fast as her feet would carry her.

Elladan pulled himself and Ivoreth back out of the way as the matron exited the shop with her linen bag bulging with what she'd bought, and then they stepped into the tiny shop. Garlain looked up from putting the coin from his last sale away, and his face smoothed into a surprised smile. Ivoreth knew very well that he didn't get many fancy folk in his shop, so he was probably already counting the extra coin he might earn that day. "Yes, my lord, my little lady…" The baker's eyes rested on her face longer than normal, and his eyes narrowed suddenly.

_He remembers me. Merciful All-Father…_

"How can my humble shop serve your lordship?" Ivoreth could see the baker had to work to focus back on the very tall Elf.

"It has come to my attention that my daughter has run up a debt with your shop," Elladan stated in a voice that made the hairs on Ivoreth's neck rise.

_He's _never_ talked to _me_ like that! Wait – daughter?_

"I am here to settle that debt."

The Elf-lord reached for Garlain's hand, grey with flour dust, and dropped a small gold coin into the palm. "This should more than pay for any number of day-old loaves that have gone missing from your rack on her account."

Garlain's eyes widened in shock as he stared at the coin. Ivoreth stared too – she'd never seen coin like _that_ before.

"Aye, my lord," Garlain sputtered and closed his hand around the precious coin, "that should take care of it nicely – and thank ye."

"And now, to another matter." Elladan released his hold on Ivoreth's hand and pointed to the day-old rack just beyond the door. "How much do you charge for the loaves there?"

"Day-old, my lord? Surely your house can afford…"

"Answer the question," Elladan interrupted in a cold voice. "How much?"

Ivoreth could see that Elladan was frightening Garlain at least as much as he was frightening _her_ at the moment. The baker's face was almost as grey as his flour dusted hands. "Three… three loaves per copper," Garlain answered after a heavy swallow.

Elladan nodded slowly and then drew out a coin pouch that clinked merrily with the movement. "I am going to give you another two gold to buy all of the day-old bread your shop might have from now until Loëndë – at which time my agent will come by to give you another six gold to buy all the day-old from then until Mettarë. You will receive six gold every half year from now on for this purpose." He opened the pouch and withdrew the coins and held them out.

Garlain's eyes were open so wide, Ivoreth thought they might fall out. "My… my lord?" He stammered, obviously confused as the two new gold coins sparkled warmly in his hand next to the first.

"I wish for you to take all the bread you have left over at the end of the day, divide each loaf in half, and then give one half-loaf each to any of the orphaned children I understand have been stealing from you of late."

"Those sewer-rats?" Garlain's expression soured. "My lord! They're nothing but thieves, all of 'em – a waste of your good coin, if you don't mind me saying! If the Guards could get into those damned tunnels, we'd have been rid of the lot of them…" His sentence died a quick death as he saw the look of fury that had filled Elladan's face.

Elladan's voice had gone soft and deadly. "These are children of Gondor you speak of – less fortunate than you and yours, I'll grant, but no less deserving of respect. You will _give_ each orphan who comes to your shop one half loaf of day-old bread each day until the days' supply is gone – and you will consider yourself well-paid to render this service to Gondor."

He glared down at the baker. "I will have my agent observe and make certain my order is being filled; and if I hear that you are withholding bread from these hungry children and selling it to others, I will take this custom elsewhere and make widely-know _why_ I have done so. The King's justice will not deal kindly with you in that case." He bent and pushed his face down close to Garlain's. "Am I clearly understood? You will not see my agent, and so not be able to hide your breaking the terms of this agreement from me in the end. You will choose now – six gold each half-year to give food to those who need it, or I take my custom elsewhere."

Ivoreth could almost see the battle in the mind of the baker between his disdain for her former cistern-mates and his lust for her guardian's rich coin. When he finally muttered, "Aye, my lord, I understand completely, and I accept your offer," and closed his hand over the three golden coins, she knew Garlain's greed had won out. "I still think you're tossing good money after bad…"

Elladan pulled himself back up to his full height. He reached down and took a firm hold of Ivoreth's hand. "That, good man, is _my _business and none of yours. Now, remove all the day-old bread from that rack at once and do as you have been paid to do."

Swallowing her fear of the stern Elf that had suddenly appeared from nowhere wearing the face of her foster father, Ivoreth tugged on the hand to get his attention. "They won't trust him," she whispered with a wary eye on the baker. "He's called the Guard on us so many times…"

"Leave that to me, sweetling," Elladan told her softly and pulled her out of the shop into the warm afternoon sun. "Word of this will get around. I saw more than one small child in rags peeking around the edge of the doorway while we were talking. Besides, we will have agents watching all of the shops we're contacting today to make certain that eventually your friends will know where they _can_ trust to go and at least get one decent meal each day."

"We?"

"Your family – myself, Elrohir, Arwen. Sometimes it is better and easier for individuals to do a thing than to ask the officials to do it at state expense." He cupped her cheek. "And it is only right that we take on this task, now that you have shown us that a problem exists."

"Why?" Ivoreth stared up at her foster father.

"Because children should be considered precious," Elladan answered with a smile. "They are the future of any people, and should be handled with respect and care."

"Even the orphans?"

"Especially the orphans, Ivoreth. And if they are too afraid to look for help at the orphanages, then we must bring the help as close to them as we can without frightening them further." He stopped and moved to face her, bending down to her. "Tell me, though; Garlain called your friends 'sewer-rats' – is that where they are? In the drains?"

Ivoreth felt her knees grow weak.

_He knows!_

He evidently could read her expression. "Merciful Elbereth, but that must be a cold refuge!" Ivoreth felt the weight of his concern and worry all the way to the bottom of her soul. "Does it not flood during the rains?"

He already knew enough to guess the rest in time – and Ivoreth realized that there was no reason for her not to answer his question any longer. "Only the tunnels fill when it rains – and where we… they… sleep is far above the water. And yes, it's cold, but it's dry most of the time." She pulled at his hand frantically. "Please, don't tell anyone! They have nowhere else to go!"

"No one will betray your friends to the Guards, Ivoreth, I swear to you." Elladan took hold of her other hand. "All we're doing is removing the reasons that they are forced to steal to survive – with the hope that if they no longer have to steal, and so no longer need to fear the Guards, they can spend their time finding ways to earn themselves coin properly." He swung her hands and smiled at her. "We're going to help them, little one – and they'll never have to know where the help came from."

He loosed one of her hands and straightened. "Come now. Time to head home."

As Ivoreth listened to him quietly give the password to the Guard blocking the Gate to the Second Circle, she realized with a hollow feeling in her stomach that Elladan hadn't promised her not to tell what he'd discovered to anybody else after all.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"My lord, there is a visitor."

Ivoreth looked up over Raini's head at her guardian sitting across from her, and then over to the young maid standing in the doorway of her bedroom. Raini continued talking to her doll about the drawings in the book that they had all been looking at together. Elladan frowned slightly as he turned. "Indeed?"

The young woman's eyes were wide. "My lord, the King himself has come. He says he wants to speak to you – and to Mistress Ivoreth too."

Ivoreth's eyes widened. "The King?" She shifted Raini from her lap to a pool of sunlight on the floor next to where they'd all been sitting together and then rose to her feet. "What does he want?" she asked warily.

"He probably just wants to apologize to you, Ivoreth," Elladan told her as he led her by the hand toward the sitting room at the front of their apartment. "He wasn't happy to find out how badly he'd frightened you the other day – and Arwen let him know that she wasn't happy about it either." Her guardian smirked, and Ivoreth wondered what else he knew that he wasn't telling.

"But I made him mad," Ivoreth complained, reluctant enough to go forward that she dragged back on her foster father's hand. "Do you think he's here to punish me now?"

"No, nethben," Elladan soothed, "He wasn't really angry with you – although I can see why you thought that. Give him a chance – he can be a very nice person when he's on his good behavior."

Ivoreth blinked. _Good behavior?? _"What?" she asked, confused.

Elladan shook his head with a smile. "Never you mind." He halted just outside the sitting room door and loosed Ivoreth's hand. "Come on, now. We don't want to keep him waiting." He moved behind her and nudged her forward with a gentle hand on each shoulder. "Good afternoon, Estel."

Both the memory of the look on the King's face the last time she'd seen him and nervousness about why he'd want to see her here, in what she was only starting to think of as her own house had her shaking inside. But Ivoreth wiped her clammy hands on her skirt with a deep breath to steady herself and walked slowly into the room. The King was sitting in the comfortable chair that Elladan often used in the evenings, when he would read to her and her sister from one of his many books. "King Elessar," she said in a small voice and gave him her second, very awkward curtsey.

"Hello, Ivoreth." The King smiled at her, rising. "Elladan," he greeted the tall Elf. Turning back to Ivoreth, he put out a hand. "Come here, my dear. You're the one I really came to see. We have a lot to talk about."

Ivoreth shot a quick glance up and back at her foster father, who merely smiled and nudged her forward again. "Go on," he urged in a whisper.

She walked forward slowly until she was just out of the King's reach. "I'm sorry I made you mad the last time," she said in a shaking voice. "I didn't mean to…"

Elessar bent forward to catch Ivoreth's hand and pull her closer to him. "I wasn't mad at you, little one. I was mad at what you were telling me – and that's why I'm here. First to tell you that I'm sorry for frightening you so. When I got back, Arwen was rather cross with me for ruining your appetite for lunch. Can you forgive me?"

Ivoreth nodded slowly, and Elessar's smile grew. "Good – because I'd hate to think that I had my only niece too scared to even talk to me."

_Niece? _

"Come here and sit with me." He pulled her close enough to reach out and settle her on his lap when he sat down. "Now, do you remember what we were talking about the last time I saw you?"

_Not again!_

She cringed but nodded.

"Well, after I left you, I spent some time with the Steward, and I have read over the court records going back two weeks. I found out your little brother did go before a judge and was held responsible for stealing bread – and his three friends were judged equally guilty."

Ivoreth stared at the King, horrified. "He's dead?" she asked in a tiny voice. "They're _all_ dead?"

Elessar shook his head. "No, little one. The penalty for petty theft, which is what they call stealing a loaf of bread in the courts, isn't death anymore."

She looked up at Elladan. "But the Guards told me…"

Elladan shook his head as well. "I wouldn't believe a word of what those Guards told you. They don't even deserve to be thought of as Guards."

Ivoreth turned back to the King. "Then what happens to thieves?"

"Not long ago, the law _did_ call for death for all forms of stealing, but after I was crowned, I reinstated many of the old laws. And the old law about theft states that convicted thieves are to be offered a choice, Ivoreth – either they agree to serve time doing labor to pay for their crime, or they suffer some sort of physical punishment and then are freed. For the theft of valuables, for example, the physical penalty is loss of the right hand. For petty theft, however, the choice is between labor and a public flogging. In the case of a child who chooses the flogging, they must either be released to a parent, or they are turned over to an orphanage for care and supervision."

When Ivoreth swayed with dizziness and nausea at the thought of what her own fate might have been, much less what Daren had to decide, Elessar pulled her to lean against him. "I know that sounds harsh – and it is. I'm expect I'll be changing that law very soon, especially in regards to young children, but that was the sentence Daren received."

_Oh Daren!_

"They would do such a thing to a _child_, Estel? That's barbaric!" Elladan exclaimed.

"The laws of Gondor have never treated children any differently from adults," Elessar shook his head. "You have to know I don't like it any more than you do, brother, but it takes time…"

Elladan snapped something in his musical language. Ivoreth had never heard him sound so angry – not even when talking to Garlain.

The King sighed deeply. "I can only change these things when they're brought to my attention, Elladan. I had hoped that the old laws Denethor replaced with his blanket death sentence for everything would have been more merciful. As it was, it took Faramir and me almost two months to go through the archives to get as far as we did. Besides, we had no idea this kind of situation was developing. How were we to know that there were orphans unwilling to go to places specially designed to give them aid?"

"You _should_ have known, Estel," Elladan insisted coldly. "You should have _known_."

Elessar quietly responded in the musical language, and what he said drew an angry snort from Elladan, but no more arguments.

"What did Daren choose?" Ivoreth asked in a whisper, almost too afraid to know the rest but unwilling to continue not knowing any longer.

The King took a deep breath and turned his attention back to Ivoreth. "He chose to work off his debt," Elessar told her gently. "The records say that he stayed but a single night in the prison before being taken away with the others convicted with him. From what I have been able to discover, he has been placed with one of the farm holders on the Pelennor who has need of extra hands to bring in the crops, and will work there for two years before he can go free."

Ivoreth looked up at her guardian, a tear running down her cheek. "I'll never see him again, then, will I?"

"I've asked my men to locate all four of the boys taken into custody that day and return them to the City," the King answered firmly. "You told me that you didn't let Daren steal – is it possible that the other boys he was with did the stealing while he stood look-out, or that they talked him into stealing with them?"

"Maybe, I don't know…" Ivoreth's mind didn't want to work.

_Hard labor! Will he come back with scars on his back like Da's – if he ever comes back? _She sighed. _At least he's still alive. He's not dead. I should be grateful…_

"Daren knew I didn't want him to – that I'd told him he could come with me next market day if he behaved himself." She sniffed and wiped at her nose with the back of her hand. "He told me he just wanted to spend some time in the sunlight."

_I should never have let him go!_

"Estel, I have seen and met this Garlain who called the Guards on those boys," Elladan offered in a clipped tone, still very obviously angry. "He has nothing but disgust for the 'sewer-rats', as he calls them. I wouldn't put it past him to have called the Guard without having lost a single loaf that day – but I cannot prove my suspicions as yet."

The King nodded slowly. "We will just have to dig deeper to find the truth." He cupped Ivoreth's cheek and turned her head to look at him. "And I _will_ find out the truth, I swear, Ivoreth. If I find that there is no proof that Daren did anything except the word of a man who cannot be trusted, then he doesn't deserve to be sentenced to hard labor – and I will see him, and all the others convicted at the same time, freed. If I find proof the boys didn't do anything, then this Garlain will take their place before the judge for filing false charges, I swear. If, however, I find that he did go against your word and stole the bread after all or participated in others doing the stealing…" He sighed. "Then I'm afraid he earned his fate. While I might change the terms of his punishment to something more fitting, he will still be a convicted thief. That much I cannot change, if the charge is true."

At Ivoreth's gasp and sudden push away from him, he continued, "Please understand, Ivoreth, this touches on the trust a land and her people must have in her King. I cannot just set aside the rule of law any time I feel like it. A King and his family cannot be completely above the law."

"Estel…" Elladan growled.

"No, Elladan. I'm working to rebuild the honor that was once ours – and part of that honor lies in Kings being expected to bend to the rule of law in the same way their subjects do." Elessar said firmly. "I will need to make the law flexible enough to allow for special circumstances, and that will be something I will begin working on immediately, but I cannot and will not set myself or any other person above that law."

"What about Daren?" Ivoreth whimpered.

"I will do what I can for him, I promise." He glanced up at Elladan. "Within reason." Ivoreth watched the two stare at each other again for a brief moment before Elessar looked back down at her. "For as long as he remains in custody, I will take personal interest in Daren's welfare. He will not be harmed – I will not have anyone pointing to him and claiming that Gondor does, indeed, allow slavery of a kind. And barring accident or illness, you _will_ see your brother again – I just cannot promise _when_ at the moment." He smoothed the hair away her face. "I'm sorry my news isn't better, little one."

Elladan muttered darkly in his strange language, swooped down and pulled Ivoreth out of the King's lap and held her close. "I will find a way to make this right, my daughter," he murmured to her as she rested her head on his shoulder with a sigh. "I vow that I will find a way to make this right."


	12. Letters and Bad News

Chapter 12 – Letters and Bad News

The afternoon was warm, and Raini had finally dropped off to sleep for her nap. Ivoreth made certain that Anni, Raini's doll, was securely tucked into her sister's arms before tiptoeing out of the bedroom in search of Celebriel. Sometimes, when Elladan and Elrohir were out on their business, the beautiful elf woman – elleth, she corrected herself; Elladan had told her the proper words for men and women Elves – could be convinced to sing to her in the beautiful language. She loved the songs, and there were a few to which she was starting to learn the words – even if she didn't understand what they said - and she could almost sing along sometimes.

She found her at the table in the kitchen, working patiently over a paper. "What are you doing?" Ivoreth asked, sitting down on the bench next to her.

"Writing a letter to my naneth," Celebriel told her, putting her quill carefully into the little ink pot beyond the paper. "She went across the sea long ago. My adar is finally leaving with Lord Elrond when he crosses the sea soon, and he will be with her again." She sighed. "I'm going to miss him as much as I have missed her. I've written him some letters too," she nodded at a stack of folded papers tied with a ribbon. "Once he's gone across the sea, it will be a long time before he will hear my words again. So I write the letters now that tell him how much I love him, so that he can hear me in that far away place when I'm not there. And with this letter, I want to tell my naneth that I am well and happy, that I love her very much – and that I will join her someday, but not yet."

Ivoreth stared at the strange markings. "So those marks on the paper are words you're saying to your mother?" She had seen such markings before, in the books that Elladan would take down to share pictures that went with the stories he would tell her just before bedtime.

Celebriel's light laughter tinkled like a small bell. "Of course – you've never seen it before, have you?"

"I have, but only in the books that Elladan gets down when he tells us stories. I thought he just got the books out to show us the pictures."

"Your Ada wasn't telling you the story, Ivoreth, he was reading the words written in the book." Celebriel pulled another smaller piece of paper from the small box next to her and turned it over to hide the ink blot and other writings that marred one side of it. She retrieved her quill from the ink, tapped it gently a couple of times and then carefully made three marks on it with smaller marks above. "There – that's you." She pointed at the marks. "That says 'Ivoreth'."

Ivoreth stared at the marks on the paper. "That's my name?" She looked up at Celebriel in wonder, only to find her smiling back.

"Yes, indeed. Watch." Celebriel carefully wrote the name again, making each mark as she explained what it signified. "I, V, O, R, E, Th. Ivoreth."

Ivoreth stared at the second set of markings, looking exactly like the first, and then looked back up at Celebriel again. "What does Elladan's name look like?"

Celebriel carefully dipped the quill back into the little ink pot and wrote two more marks. "There. That's what 'Ada' looks like."

_She keeps saying Ada. I know what that word means – it means father. She's talking about Elladan._

"I mean, what does Elladan look like in writing?" she asked again.

Celebriel blinked. "Elladan _is_ your Ada, little one."

_She thinks I should call Elladan " father?"_

Ivoreth shook her head. "I have a Da – he's dead," she announced flatly. "I can't write letters to him – he couldn't read them anyway."

"I'm not speaking of your Da," Celebriel answered gently. "Nobody will ever replace him – not even Elladan. But he _can_ be your Ada – your foster-father – can he not? Da and Ada sound almost the same, but they aren't the same – just your Da and Elladan aren't the same person, but they love you and take care of you in much the same way."

Ivoreth tipped her head, thinking. _The same, but different? He loves me?_

"So I'm not supposed to call him Elladan anymore, I'm supposed to call him Ada?" she asked carefully with eyes narrowed. Was she expected to do that to be a foster-daughter? How many other things would she have to learn – and what would happen if she made a mistake?

"Oh, Ivoreth!" Celebriel put her arm about Ivoreth's shoulder. "There are no rules for how or when you call Elladan by name or as Ada. I suppose it depends on whether you like him well enough to use Ada."

"I like him…" Ivoreth complained. "He's been very nice to me and to Raini."

"He intends to raise you in his house, as if you were his daughter. Is that something that you want?"

_I have a choice?_

But Ivoreth nodded – as much for Raini's sake as for her own. Raini _needed_ someone to look after her – she had failed at that already and knew her limitations. Watching Raini and Elladan together was like watching Daren with Da. And it was nice not to have to make so many hard choices anymore. Still…

She stared at the smaller word for a moment that seemed to stretch. Ada. She pictured Elladan's face in her mind and kept staring at the little word. _Ada?_

Celebriel sighed finally, reached for the quill again and made three marks. "That's Elladan."

Ivoreth studied the new word on the page, grateful to be brought back to the topic that had so intrigued her before. "Can I learn to do that someday?"

"Do you want to learn?"

Ivoreth nodded enthusiastically.

"Then you shall learn – we can maybe make it a surprise for your Ada. Would you like that?"

Ignoring yet another gentle push in the direction of calling Elladan by another name, Ivoreth nodded again and looked up at her eagerly. "Can I try?"

The elleth moved the smaller paper in front of Ivoreth. "Using pen and ink takes a great deal of practice. It takes work to keep from making blots like the one on the other side of this." She lifted the edge of the paper to expose the dark spot on the other side.

Ivoreth touched the paper with cautious fingers. She hadn't dared touch the book that Elladan kept bringing down to show her at bedtime, afraid that she'd hurt it. Now with a chance to look at real paper up close, she could see how it was a mass of tiny little threads running in every possible direction. She smoothed her thumb and forefinger along the length, marveling at how smooth it was, and how it held together despite everything.

_So this is what it feels like!_

Celebriel carefully positioned the quill in Ivoreth's right hand. "We'll start learning with this hand first – and maybe tomorrow work on the other one. Now, what do you want to try first?"

"Ada?" Ivoreth smiled eagerly. It was the shortest word – and it made the elleth's face light up with a smile, as she had hoped.

"Very well. Do you remember which one that is?"

Ivoreth nodded again and pointed to the shorter word.

"Good girl. Let's see how you do, then."

Celebriel guided Ivoreth's hand with the quill to the little ink bottle, dipped the tip in, tapped the end gently on the edge of the bottle, and then moved it down to the paper. "Don't press too hard, or you'll ruin the tip," she warned. Ivoreth bit her lip and tried to copy the first of Celebriel's markings. The quill was shaking with her effort to control the lines and make them smooth, like the example above it. She frowned. The ink had pooled in some places and been barely visible in others - and the lines were not straight at all. "That doesn't look right."

"It takes practice, nethben. For a first try, it's very good. Keep going. What's next?"

_This is harder than it looked when Celebriel did it!_

She looked up into the elleth's face, found it smiling and encouraging still, and looked back up at the example and tackled the final pair. She slumped back and compared her attempt with the elegant markings. "I'm not very good at it," she said sadly, putting the quill carefully back in its little ink bottle. She was very disappointed in herself. There was no sign of the gentle, graceful curves that were in Celebriel's example. In fact, it barely looked like the same thing.

_That looks horrible!_

Celebriel laughed aloud and hugged Ivoreth tightly for a moment. "No, Ivoreth! You did very well for never having tried before. I can just tell that you're going to be a very good student! What a surprise this will be for your Ada!"

Ivoreth blinked and straightened herself against Celebriel's side. "Really?"

"Nethben, _nobody's_ first try ever looks as nice as they'd want it to be. My Ada has some of my first tries saved – I'll have to show them to you when we get home to Imladris. You'll laugh, I'm certain. You're doing much better now than I did." She hugged Ivoreth again. "It takes everybody time and practice to write well. Be patient, and practice hard, and you'll be writing in a nicer hand than mine someday."

_If I work hard, I can make it better. I know I can. And it would be nice to surprise Elladan. He called me daughter yesterday – and made it so that Garlain has no hold over me. Maybe I _could_ start calling him Ada - would he like that? _

Ivoreth smiled and soaked up the hug – then sat forward again to reach for the quill. "I want to try it again."

oOoOo

_Something's wrong_.

Ivoreth watched Celebriel glance out the dark bedroom window for the third time since she'd started to tell the story of the seven dwarves in the hall of the Elvenking of Mirkwood. The tale was funny and exciting, but Celebriel had her mind obviously on something else.

What was more, Elladan hadn't come home – and neither had Elrohir.

That, more than anything else, worried Ivoreth. Elladan had never failed to make an appearance at the evening meal – no matter what his daily business had required of him. More often than not, he arrived with Elrohir, and the two would amuse Raini and her with stories of their day. The security of knowing that, by the end of the day, the one person she trusted most in the world was watching over her again had become very important.

Celebriel was back to telling the story, using different voices to make the people in the story come alive for Raini. Her little sister was, as always, wide-eyed and open-mouthed as the tale went on. Ivoreth listened with only part of her attention – looking out the darkened window and hoping for the sound of the apartment door opening and closing to tell her that all the important people in her world were once more safe and sound.

There they were – at last! Low, deep voices sounded from beyond the bedroom door, and Ivoreth's world settled and became safe again. She looked at Celebriel and saw the elleth give her a slight nod in permission to go greet her foster-father. Ivoreth slid from the bed, ignoring the chill of the wood on bare feet, and trotted out into the apartment. Two dark heads turned to her, but Ivoreth only had eyes for the one that she knew now, without a doubt, was her foster-father. She could tell the two apart easily now – Elladan stood just slightly taller than his twin.

_He looks tired._

"Ivoreth." Ivoreth needed no further invitation to trot over to Elladan and be gathered into his arms as he bent to her. He held her tightly, then lifted her and balanced her on a hip. Ivoreth sighed contentedly and rested her head on his shoulder. Elrohir commented quietly in their musical language and, after giving her a gentle and oddly sad smile, headed off toward his own chamber.

"There is news," Elladan began, carrying her into the sitting room and then sitting down in his regular, comfortable chair to settle her into his lap, "and I'm afraid it isn't good news."

At the sadness in his grey-blue eyes, Ivoreth felt a sharp dart of fear. "Daren?" she whispered. He nodded. She bit her lip and then gave voice to her worst nightmare. "Is he dead?"

"No." Elladan drew her head back to his shoulder. "He's alive, but he's in a very bad way. The Guards in the prison… they were not kind…"

A chill went down Ivoreth's spine. "They hurt him." This wasn't surprising, although her foster-father's reaction was beginning to scare her.

_Daren! What did they do to you?_

"Yes – they, and some of the older boys in the cell with him." Elladan took a deep and shaky breath, which told Ivoreth how upset this had made even him. "The Guards reported that he'd been sent out to the farmsteads to work – but he was in no shape to send anywhere. Those charged with taking the convicts to their masters would have reported his injuries – so the Guards hid him in a small cell far in the back and lied in their reports."

"Why?" she asked in a small voice.

She could feel Elladan's whole body tense beneath her. "We don't know yet – the Guards posted to that part of the prison aren't telling what happened, and we're still trying to find all the boys taken to the Pelennor that were with Daren in the cell that night." His arms closed tightly around her. "Daren is in the Houses of Healing, Ivoreth. Aragorn – Estel – is with him now. We can only hope…"

Ivoreth huddled against her foster-father. "Is he going to die?"

Elladan sighed, and she knew that she wouldn't like the answer to that. "Estel is doing all he can – Elrohir and I were with him most of the afternoon. I will rest now for a few hours, and then I will go back and watch over him while Estel rests. Elrohir will come in the morning. With luck, we won't have to call Estel again – and Daren will recover." He dropped a kiss onto her cheek. "He's in the best of hands, Ivoreth. You know that…"

Yes, she knew that. The King had come when Raini had been almost at the edge of the worlds and drawn her back – surely he could help Daren! But what if he couldn't? No – she wouldn't think that.

"Can I go see him?"

Elladan shook his head slowly. "Not yet, little one. It would only upset you to see him like that, and your visit would not do Daren any good. He wouldn't even know that you were there." He sheltered her head under his chin. "The moment the visit will do you both good, though, I'll take you – I promise."

Ivoreth clung to Elladan, convinced by the way he trembled that her guardian was in as much need of comforting as she was. She heard him whisper something in his own language very softly – and suddenly she felt the warm splash of something wet hit her cheek from above. And then she couldn't hold back her own tears any longer.

_Don't cry, Ada…_


	13. Daren

Chapter 13 - Daren

The sun was only barely beginning to show her light into the bedroom window when Ivoreth heard the apartment door open and close again very quietly. She'd heard much the same a long while earlier – how much earlier she had no way of knowing, but she'd slept very little the night before and had heard every little sound. The first opening and closing she knew had been Elladan – Ada – leaving to take over caring for Daren from the King; this latest had to be Elrohir leaving to take Ada's place so that he could get some rest as well.

She rolled over and stared at the dark ceiling. It was going to be a very long day, waiting for word that Daren was getting better. Daren _was_ going to get better – the King himself had taken care of him! He _had_ to get better! Daren _had_ to come north with them – to get away from this City and all the bad things that had happened there.

But… The door was opening and closing again! It was too soon.

Ivoreth flew from her bed and out into the hallway. It was Ada – he was back – but so was Elrohir. But Elrohir was supposed to be caring for Daren while Ada rested…

_No!_

Elladan saw her in the hallway, and walked slowly up to her before dropping to one knee to gather her into his arms. "Ivoreth – I'm so sorry…" he murmured with a catch in his voice

"No…" Ivoreth began to shake her head.

_He can't be!_

"He was just hurt too badly, nethben – his body too badly damaged to mend." Elladan held her tightly.

"He… was just a little boy!" Ivoreth wailed, wrapping her arms around her Ada's neck and holding tight. "He didn't do anything!"

"I know," Elladan whispered to her. "I know."

"He just wanted to play in the sunshine for a little while. I should _never_ have let him go…"

"This isn't your fault, Ivoreth," Elladan's large hand cupped Ivoreth's head as she sobbed into his shoulder. "You did nothing wrong."

"But I let him go – and now he's dead!"

"He didn't die because you let him go."

"Daren!"

Elladan picked Ivoreth up and carried her into the sitting room and sat back down with her in the chair they'd shared only the night before. She heard Elrohir speak sadly from behind her, hearing both Celebriel's and Raini's names mentioned along the way. But she didn't care. Nothing mattered except the fact that her little brother was gone – really gone, this time – and there would never be any hope to make it right again.

Elladan nodded silently, and then the two of them were alone in the sitting room.

Ivoreth sobbed until the robe beneath her cheek was thoroughly soaked – until she had run out of tears and lay exhausted and breathing hard in her foster-father's arms. As if waiting for her to quiet again, he began to sing to her – a song stunning in both its beauty and its intense sadness. He rocked them both, and Ivoreth once more felt the wetness fall from above that told her that her new Ada was weeping with her. His voice cracked more than once, but he kept on rocking and singing until, unable to keep her eyes open any longer, Ivoreth dropped away into a dreamless sleep with the music still in her ears and dreamed of Daren playing ball with his friends in the corner, against the wall. Smiling. Laughing. Alive.

oOoOo

_Why does it have to be such a pretty day?_

Ivoreth shifted on her feet and stared into the deep hole in the ground with an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. To her left, her Ada reached down to reclaim a hand and offer comfort – but the small, linen-wrapped body lying next to the grave, ready to be lowered, stole any comfort there was to be had from her. On her right, Celebriel softly shushed at a fussy Raini, who had taken this development with the resignation of one very young who had already accepted her brother's death.

At the head of the grave stood the King, and to his side, the Queen and Steward, Lord Faramir. Their attendance at what normally would have been a very quiet affair had brought a number of well-dressed strangers into the cemetery where the common folk of Minas Tirith were buried. Elessar looked stern and regal as he recited formal words of farewell to a young boy taken too early in life. Ivoreth wasn't listening – she didn't care.

Finally, at a signal, the six Guards standing in back of the King came forward together in formation, and each picked up an end of a rope that stretched under the small body. Slowly they lifted and then lowered the body into the grave. Together, the Guards then carefully dropped their ends of the ropes into the grave and stepped back.

"Ready?" Elladan asked Ivoreth in a whisper, giving a small tug on the hand in his.

_No._

She nodded. Her new Ada had talked to her about this the night before. She had her flower clutched tightly in her right hand, and when her Ada stepped forward, she did too. "Goodbye, Daren," she whispered, her eyes yet again filling with tears; and then dropped her flower into the grave to rest on her brother's wrapped chest along with Ada's. She worked hard not to just break down and sob like a baby again – with all these grand strangers about, watching everyone and everything, she needed to be strong. She felt Ada's grip on her hand tighten just a little, and she looked up into an understanding face that wore tear-tracks of its own.

Beside her, she heard Raini murmur a quiet, "Bye-bye, Daren," and another two flowers fell into the grave. Elrohir stepped forward with the King, Queen and Steward, and each dropped their flowers into the grave without a word. At a nod from the King, the graveyard workers moved forward with their shovels and began filling in the hole – each thud of soil hitting the bottom striking a blow to Ivoreth's heart and making her flinch.

Finally, Ada leaned down, picked her up and settled her on a hip, letting her lean her head on his shoulder and have a little privacy to cry. She tucked her nose under his ear and hid her face in his long hair, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. From behind, she felt a soft hand press gentle circles into her back, and the voice of the Queen murmuring soft comfort at her, but she didn't care. Nothing mattered except the thought of her little brother at the bottom of that very deep hole with all that dirt pouring in on top of him.

Ivoreth had never lived through such a long stretch of time as that needed to fill in the grave of her little brother. But finally, thankfully, the ordeal was over. Without another word spoken after the workers backed away from the slightly mounded grave, all turned away and began walking slowly toward the road that led back to the City Gate. Ivoreth turned her head on her Ada's shoulder and numbly looked out over a countryside she'd never seen before, never having been beyond the City Gate in her entire life.

The approach of a cart moved the entire party to the left of the road. A tired looking horse pulled a crude, wooden cart filled with children and young men, heading out of the City. Ivoreth's eyes slipped carelessly over the pale faces until it landed on a particular one – small, big-eyed and tear-stained. "Ada…" she whispered, stunned. When Elladan didn't respond immediately, she shifted in his arms. "Ada?"

"What is it, little one?"

_Was he surprised I called him Ada? I thought he'd like it…_

"Didn't the King say that he had the others taken with Daren brought into the city?" Ivoreth watched the cart lumber over a rut from the crossroad that jerked the forlorn passengers roughly.

"Yes…" Elladan looked down at her. "Why?"

"Then why are they taking Samul away again?" Ivoreth pointed.

Elladan pivoted and stared at the cart for a moment, and then called out to the King – who in turn called out an order that had his six Guards spinning on their heels and trotting after the cart. Several bellows cut through the quiet before the cart rattled to a halt, the driver turning in his seat to argue with the Guards.

"Ivoreth." Elessar walked up to Elladan and spoke briskly to her. "You say you recognize someone in the cart?"

"Samul," Ivoreth said softly. "He was playing with Daren before…"

Elessar's eyes narrowed, and he spoke sharply to Lord Faramir. The man who looked so much like the King got a sour look on his face and stalked over to join the Guards who surrounded the cart. Ivoreth watched, moving from numbness to interest as Lord Faramir took charge of whatever discussion was going on – and then pointed at the cart. The driver, obviously disgusted, climbed down and moved to the back end of the cart, lowered the end, and motioned rudely for those within to get out.

"We will need you to point out which one is Samul," Elessar told her. He put out his hand and, after a quick glance at her Ada, her feet once more touched the ground and her hand slipped into that of the King. Moving quickly, but not so fast that Ivoreth was forced to run, Elessar led her over to the small huddle of ragged prisoners. "Which one is he?" he asked her after Faramir had the small group line up.

"There." Ivoreth pointed to the tiny, grime-faced boy laden with the heavy chains of his status.

Samul looked as if he were ready to fall under the weight of chains far too heavy for one of his size. He stared at Ivoreth for a long moment before his mouth suddenly fell open. "I…Ivo…" His gaze darted in terror from one of the grand nobles surrounding his friend's sister to the other and swallowed hard.

"Do you recognize any of the others?" the King asked, his voice tight.

Ivoreth studied the faces in front of her and then shook her head. "No – only Samul."

"The little one – release him from his chains!" barked the King. "Guards, take him into custody and bring him with us."

Little Samul's face drained of what little color it had left under the grime as the driver pulled out a heavy key and began working the lock that held the larger chain to the boy's waist. As the driver straightened after releasing the smaller chain that held the boy's feet, he leaned in to whisper something into the boy's ear that made Samul shrink together even more – and then shoved the boy in the direction of the King's Guards. Samul had no chance to get his feet under him, and he fell into the gravel of the road.

"That's enough!" Lord Faramir shouted angrily. "Off with you, then!" He turned and gestured at two of the Guard surrounding the cart. "And you two go with him, to make certain things are carried out properly."

"What was that boy doing in that cart?" The King demanded of Faramir. "I ordered him returned to the City to be questioned – not shipped out again before any have a chance to talk to him!"

"The driver claims that he was just following instructions," Faramir responded. "He says he makes a trip to the outlying farms every week with another group of convicts – this is just his regular delivery." The Steward put his hand on the King's arm. "The problem, if there is one, lies within the City and the Guards at the prison, Sire – not with this man. Let him make his delivery – we can question him more closely when he returns."

Elessar didn't look convinced, but sighed heavily. The rough words and shoves that the driver used to force his passengers back up into the back of the rough cart made Ivoreth shudder against his leg, and the King quickly turned and returned her to her guardian's keeping. Ada's hand was warm on hers, and he spoke soft words of comfort to her; and slowly Ivoreth relaxed again. After the cart was once more rattling and lumbering down the road, a point and a quick command from the King had the nearest Guard pulling the terrified little boy that had been left behind up into his arms and falling back into formation with the rest of the Guard.

"They aren't going to hurt him, are they?" Ivoreth wondered aloud. Samul bore several new bruises on his arms and face that spoke of times when he'd been unable to dodge blows thrown at him already.

"I don't think so, nethben," Ada answered gently. "Samul's in the keeping of the King himself now – and the King is nothing if not merciful. You know this." He lifted his head and spoke softly to Elessar, who turned back to Ivoreth.

"We'll have the healers look to your brother's little friend – and then we'll hear what he has to say," Elessar assured her. "My Guard will not harm him. You need not worry."

"Can I hear what he says too?" Ivoreth asked, her voice breaking. "I want to know what happened to Daren."

Elessar's grey eyes gazed first into hers and then up into her Ada's face – and then the King nodded. "Very well. I'll send word when we're ready to hear the boy, so that you can be there." The King bent and brushed aside a stray wisp of hair that had come from the braids Celebriel had woven just that morning. "After everything, I can see you deserve to know."

Ivoreth watched the King walk back to join hands with the Queen as Ada leaned over and picked her up again. Once more the group began the long walk back into the City; and as Ada began moving, she laid her head back down on his shoulder and clasped her arms tightly around his neck. She had thought that she was done with tears, but from someplace deep inside one last slow tear made its way down her cheek as she stared over the top of the shoulder at the low stone wall that surrounded the place where her brother now lay, and she finally closed her eyes against the echoing emptiness in her stomach when she remembered the sound of dirt hitting the bottom of the grave.

It had been the most horrible sound she'd ever heard – and one she doubted she would ever forget.


	14. Justice

Chapter 14 - Justice

The King's message arrived at the warmest point of the afternoon, finding Ivoreth sitting on her bed staring out the window at nothing. Raini sat on Celebriel's lap, leaning against the _elleth_ with her eyes half-closed while listening to a soft song about white shores and green grass and tall mountains. On the small table between the beds sat a tray with slices of bread and cheese which had remained untouched by either girl.

Ivoreth heard her Ada answer the knock on the door, but didn't turn her head or move to see who it was. Her mind was caught somewhere between the last time she'd seen her little brother alive – laughing with his friends in the corner by the wall – and the sad little linen-wrapped bundle that had lay so still and cold next to the hungry hole in the ground that had eventually eaten it whole.

"Ivoreth." She finally brought herself back from her troubling daydreams to look up into her Ada's face. "The King sends for us."

_Finally._

She scooted to the edge of the bed and stood, only to find Ada looking from the plate of food to her face. "You really need to eat something, my daughter. It's a long walk back up to the Citadel – and you didn't eat much this morning."

"I'm really not very hungry, Ada," she replied softly. Indeed, just the thought of eating was enough to make her stomach do a rather unsettling turn.

He wasn't happy about it, Ivoreth could tell, but he evidently decided not to press the point, for he put out his hand to her and led her from the bedroom and then from the apartment. He was right – it _was_ a long walk up to the Citadel, and Ivoreth was feeling the emptiness in her stomach by the time they approached the door-wards with their crossed spears preventing entry. This time, however, Ada needed say not a word before the spears were pulled upright and out of the way, allowing them to pass.

Again, they were met by a black and silver-robed noble, who with a word and a gesture had them heading down a different hallway and finally entering into another room much like the one they'd been in before. This time, however, Elessar was already seated in a chair on a very small, raised platform near the hearth, with Lord Faramir standing to the side and slightly behind the chair. On either side stood a small number of richly dressed nobles who spoke in very quiet tones amongst themselves as they waited. Ada bowed to the King, his movement reminding Ivoreth to drop into her awkward mimic of a proper curtsey; and then they moved to the side as well, into a spot where Ivoreth knew she'd be able to see and hear everything that happened.

Elessar gave the two of them a slight nod of the head and then looked toward the door. "Bring in the boy," he said to Faramir.

"Bring in the prisoner," Faramir called out in a clear tone.

_Prisoner?_

Movement and a clanking came from the direction of the door, and Ivoreth turned to see two Guards in highly polished helms marching toward the King with a very small boy between them, their hands obviously heavy on his shoulders. Samul had been bathed, she noticed, and been given something better than the rags he'd been wearing in the cart. But from the way his wide and almost wild eyes darted first to one richly dressed noble to the next, it was clear that the boy was terrified. His face had faded to the color of the cleanest white stone of the Citadel itself.

Samul's wandering gaze found Ivoreth again, and she could tell he would have run to her had not the Guards kept their hands on his shoulders to hold him in place. Ivoreth wished she could tell him that it was going to be all right, but from the stern and serious look on the King's face, she couldn't tell what was going to happen.

Elessar's gaze moved once between Ivoreth and the terrified little boy before him who was staring at the girl imploringly, and he seemed to come to a decision. "Ivoreth, would you come here, please?" the King called out, stretching out a hand to her.

Ivoreth gazed up at her Ada in surprise and worry, but Ada merely nodded and then smiled down at her. "Go on," he whispered, his hand at her back giving her the smallest nudge.

All the conversations in the room seemed to cease as Ivoreth walked slowly up onto the platform to in front of the King, and then put her hand in his. Elessar leaned forward and pulled her to him enough to put his arm about her waist and bring her to his side. He then looked down at the boy shivering in front of him. "I hear your name is Samul – is that right?" Ivoreth blinked in surprise – the stern tone was gone, and Elessar was the kind man she'd met a few days earlier, who had told her of her brother's sentence.

The little boy nodded nervously, his eyes darting back and forth between Ivoreth and the King.

Elessar stretched out his other hand. "Come up here next to me. I'd like to talk with you a while, Samul." At the sudden rush of astonished whispers from the gathered nobles, he looked out across the room and scowled. "Don't mind them," he said in a slightly louder tone, returning his attention to the boy, "they just want to listen to our talk." He kept his hand out. "I'm not going to hurt you, little one," he soothed. "Come here."

Samul inched forward, glancing backwards at the Guards that had been at his side as if astonished that they hadn't moved forward with him. Ivoreth watched as he came to the very edge of the platform and stopped. "Come on up here," Elessar beckoned again. "Take a step up – it's all right." Finally Samul pushed himself up on the platform, and the King reached out and pulled the little boy closer by the hand until Samul stood right at the King's knees.

"You know Ivoreth, don't you?" the King asked kindly. Samul's eyes glued themselves to Ivoreth's face as he nodded. "And you remember her little brother – Daren?"

At that, Samul's face lost what little trace of color it had regained in the past moments. He nodded and found something on the floor to look at.

"I need you to tell me what happened to Daren," the King said, using a finger to bring Samul's face back up to look at him. "Ivoreth needs to know why her brother died."

Samul's gaze swung immediately to Ivoreth. "I'm sorry," he began, his eyes filling as he shook his head slowly. Ivoreth bit her lip, surprised at herself when she found yet another small well of tears of her own.

"Samul." The little boy looked once more at the King in front of him. "Tell us what happened."

Samul shook his head again. "They s…said…" he began, beginning to tremble.

"They said what?" Elessar urged gently.

Samul gazed up at the King, huge tears dripping from his chin. "They said if I told… that I'd end up like Daren." He whispered the last part.

The King took a deep breath. "Who told you this?" he asked in a slightly more stern tone.

Samul shook his head and looked at his bare feet again. Elessar waited for a moment; and then gave Ivoreth a quick smile as he removed his arm from her waist to reach out and pull Samul up into his lap. Again he sent out a quick glare to quiet the nobles who were watching and rustling in outrage again before looking back at Samul. "Samul, do you know who I am?" The little boy looked up into the King's face and shook his head, cringing. "I am the King, little one. Whoever told you that they would harm you would have to come through me right now – so it's safe for you to tell me who they are."

" The…" Samul's eyes had gotten very wide, and he stared at the King for a long moment. "You're really the King?" he asked in a whisper with obvious disbelief.

"Yes."

Samul stared at the King's head. "Then where's your crown?"

Elessar smoothed a hand over Samul's back and gave a small smile. "I thought that it would be better if I didn't wear it. I thought it might frighten you – and I need you able to answer me. But you may trust me when I give you my word as King that you're safe now. Nobody can get to you here."

"I'm really safe?" he asked in a trembling voice.

"Yes," Elessar answered calmly. "You're really safe now. So tell me, who told you not to speak of these things?"

"D…Durdir, th…the Guard at the prison," the boy finally stammered, "and then the cart driver – that's Durdir's brother, Pellas."

"Very good, Samul – you're doing just fine." The King ran his hand over the boy's shoulders. Ivoreth saw Lord Faramir move away for a moment to speak very softly into the ear of one of the Guards that had brought Samul into the room – and the Guard nodded and turned and left while Lord Faramir moved back into his place behind the King's chair. "Now, I need you to tell Ivoreth what happened that night in the prison," the King continued gently.

Samul looked over at Ivoreth, his eyes filling yet again. "He was afraid of the dark," he began with a guilty shrug of the shoulder, as if trying to excuse what he was about to tell.

Ivoreth nodded. It had been something that no amount of comforting from her had been able to take care of. She had never understood the fears her little brother thought would come at him in the dark, but she had learned very quickly to let him nestle close to her at night lest his crying and whimpering keep them all awake.

"They didn't like it when he started to cry – and they started to hit him…" Samul looked back up at the King. "I tried to tell them to stop, but they pushed me away and told me to shut up."

"Who hit him?" The King's voice was very soft and gentle.

Samul began speaking quickly. "The older boys in the cell – they called him a baby and began punching him to get him to be quiet. And when he started crying louder, they hit him again… And then Durdir came over…"

"The Guard?" Elessar prompted.

Samul nodded. "He said something like 'If you can't get the brat to shut up, I'll do it.'" Samul sniffed and gave Ivoreth a very guilty glance. "That's when he kicked him real hard in the head." He hung his head. "Daren got real quiet – and everybody backed away and went to sleep. It was too dark to see anything – but I saw Daren was still down in the morning, and there was lots of blood. When the time came for us all to go, Durdir just pushed us all out of the cell and said he'd clean up the mess." He looked at Ivoreth again. "I'm sorry, Ivo – I couldn't help him…" Big tears rolled down his cheek again, and he looked up at the King for a brief moment before hanging his head again. "That's what happened."

Elessar sat very quietly for a moment, his eyes half-closed; and then he looked down at Samul and nodded. "You're a very brave fellow for telling us this. And now, I have one last question for you – one that is very important – and I need to know that you'll tell me the truth." Samul gazed up at the King. "Will you tell me the truth?" The boy nodded. "Then tell me, did you steal the bread from the baker Garlain the day you were arrested?"

Samul shook his head. "No, but Jarem did."

"Jarem?" The King looked to Ivoreth.

"Jarem is Samul's big brother," she told him softly. "And Daren didn't steal. He didn't. I told you he didn't." Ivoreth didn't know whether to feel relief or anger. She looked over at her Ada for support, and found his expression tight and angry too.

Elessar turned back to the boy. "Your brother took the bread? You're certain?"

Samul nodded. "And he ran fast from Garlain, and made it back into the drain before the Guards could catch him. He's good at that." The little boy's voice held a touch of pride, which evaporated quickly when he glanced back up into the King's face again. "Garlain was so mad, he pointed at us and told the Guards to take us instead. He said it didn't make any difference who got arrested as long as some of us sewer-rats paid for the pinched loaf with our hides."

"Why didn't you tell all this to the judge?" Faramir asked over the King's shoulder.

"I…" Samul gulped. "I was afraid – and so were Bran and Davit. We thought they were going to kill us, even though the Guard said that all they'd do was flog the skin from our backs."

The King gazed long and hard at Samul, who stared back with only a small shiver of what Ivoreth knew had to be fear. Then Elessar took a deep breath and ruffled Samul's hair with a gentle smile. "A very brave little fellow indeed." He set Samul down in front of him near Ivoreth and raised his eyes to look about the room. "And telling the truth. This child is innocent of the charges under which he was convicted. We hereby set aside the verdict against him on the charge of petty theft."

Samul stared. "You can do that?" he gaped.

Elessar looked at Ivoreth. "We also hereby set aside the verdict against Daren, brother of Ivoreth, on the same charge, so that his memory may remain spotless. We also set aside the verdict in the same matter against the children Bran and Davit…" he looked back at Faramir. "Have we discovered where they are yet?"

Faramir shook his head. "That I know of, no, Sire. We're still searching the outlying farms."

"They went to a farm out farther than the one I was at," Samul offered quickly, then blanched at having the King's full attention again. "At least, that's what I was told. They didn't get off the cart when I did."

Elessar nodded again, looking out over the small crowd of nobles that gazed back at him in utter silence. "My lords, the tale you heard this day was of a horrible miscarriage of justice that went on right under all our noses, of a kind that _has_ been going on under _your_ noses for a long time – and why? Because the victims of this atrocity were poor and easy to just brush away or, as in this instance, easy to throw into a dark and forgotten corner of the prison to die of a beating. For these unfortunates, and the One only knows how many others like them who lost homes, parents, families, or incomes in the siege and the war that came before it, this past year of peace and new prosperity has made no difference in their lives at all. For too long, those who somehow managed to have enough to avoid this kind of suffering have hoped that these less fortunate people would simply starve to death and so remove themselves from the need for any consideration." The King's eyes narrowed. "That kind of thinking belongs more properly in Mordor than in Minas Tirith. And, gentlemen, that kind of thinking _will_ change – _now_!"

Elessar rose to his feet, and Ivoreth, with Samul suddenly pressed into her side, stepped back from the tall man who suddenly seemed to grow taller and grander just by pulling himself to his full height. "We hereby decree that Samul, Davit and Bran, orphans of Minas Tirith with no other responsible family to call upon for support or assistance in their youth, all be given over into the care of the chief warden of the orphanages…

_No! Not the orphanages! _

Ivoreth stared at the King in stunned dismay, and then blinked at his next words. "…to be given a decent place to sleep at night, food to eat, clothes to wear, healers to care for any injuries or illnesses and in the fullness of time, proper training in order to take their places as useful citizens of Gondor with gainful employment. In light of certain abuses that we recently learned occurred at orphanages in the past," the King glanced down at Ivoreth, and she shivered to know that he was referring to what had happened to her Da, "the Queen herself will personally vouchsafe that these three, and all others that come into the care of the orphanages from now on, never have reason to fear for their wellbeing again."

_He would do that? _

Elessar turned a stern look on the remaining Guard that had brought Samul into the audience chamber. "In the matter in which we just heard testimony, we hereby order the arrest of the baker Garlain, on the charge of causing the false arrest of innocents. We order his establishment seized on behalf of the Crown until such time as we can decide how best to make use of it." Ivoreth saw him look directly at her Ada, and the beginning of a smile started to ease her Ada's face. The King looked back out over the crowd. "The Guard Durdir is also ordered held and charged with the death of the child Daren, and his brother Pellas will be held and charged with making threats of retribution to obstruct the processes of justice. Those others in the cell with the child Daren at the time of the attack on him will be found and returned to the City and charged with assault and battery."

He paused then, and stepped forward to glare out at the gathered nobles. "As men of Gondor, we are pledged to honor the Light, not to turn a blind eye to our most vulnerable people for so long, leaving undone a task that bears greatly on the future. These children – rich or poor, orphaned or children of nobles - are our future and our greatest treasure, gentlemen. They are the heirs that we leave behind, and what we do today will shape their actions – the kind of honor they uphold, and the kind of justice they deal out in their turn when we are long gone. They – not the structures we build or the battles we win – are our true immortality,. We brush aside even the least of these children of Gondor at our peril – and I for one will not squander even the smallest bit of our realm's future needlessly any longer."

"Ivoreth," the King turned to her, "We regret deeply that this comes too late to be of aid to your brother, but you have our solemn vow that all will be done to assure that nothing like this ever happens again. And now," he reached down and grabbed up a gasping Samul into his arms and then reached for Ivoreth's hand, "we will go together to the orphanage, so that you can see for yourself that your brother's friend will be in good hands indeed." He looked up and out over the crowd, who were still standing, many with mouths still gaping. "This audience is at an end."

: = :

_Sindarin Vocabulary_

_Ada - Dad, Daddy_

_elleth - female Elf (pl. ellith)_


	15. Preparations and Mistakes

Chapter 15 – Preparations and Mistakes

"Look at this, Ivoreth – this is lovely!" Celebriel exclaimed, pulling a soft, green gown from the package of clothing delivered late that afternoon. "Stand up, _nethben_, so I can see how it will look on you."

Ivoreth sighed and scooted across the bed to stand and walk over to the elleth. The days since Samul's hearing before the King had dragged on almost endlessly. Without the need to be constantly looking for food or goods to trade for coin, she was finding life empty – especially with Daren no longer at her side, keeping her company. Celebriel meant well, and the writing lessons and now sewing lessons were an interesting distraction when the elleth brought out the supplies, but she was just… different. Ivoreth was fond of her, but wasn't entirely certain how to take her yet.

There was no question that Ivoreth was very fond of her foster father and his brother, however. Elladan had easily stepped into the place once occupied by her Da in her life, but demonstrated a level of compassion and patience that Da lacked more often than not. Ivoreth still felt a deep gratitude while watching Ada interact with Raini – and how Raini ran to him now and expected to be caught up in arms and held close. Even if _she_ didn't entirely feel as if she fit into this new life, she knew that bringing Raini to Ada had been the right decision. At least she'd done right once, despite all the other poor decisions that had cost others so much. As for Elrohir, Ivoreth often wondered if she had two Adas rather than just the one.

"You're looking sad again," Celebriel commented, setting aside the split skirt she'd just lifted from the bundle of new clothing and sitting down on the edge of Ivoreth's bed. She put out a hand and pulled the girl to her. "It must be hard to be thinking about leaving him behind when we go home."

"I just miss him," Ivoreth whispered around her tears. "I keep waiting for him to come to me and ask me if he can do something he knows he isn't ready to do yet." She took a deep sigh. "He always wanted to help. It isn't fair…"

"No, it isn't," Celebriel agreed, bending down and kissing the top of Ivoreth's head. "But it doesn't do you any good to sit around crying all day long either. Do you think Daren would want you to do that?"

Ivoreth turned watery eyes upward. "I don't know," she admitted.

The elleth hugged Ivoreth tighter, and the girl relaxed into the gentle care.

_Sometimes she reminds me of Nana. Nana used to hold me like this sometimes. Maybe being different isn't all that bad after all._

"Why don't you help me fold up these new things and put them in your drawers? That way, everything you'll need to pack will be in one place, ready to go when the time comes." Celebriel ran her hand in soothing circles on Ivoreth's back.

Ivoreth glanced at the clothing press that held the belongings that Ada had gifted her with in the days since she'd come to stay with him. She really didn't want to open it up – not with Celebriel there.

The elleth rose and, to Ivoreth's horror, walked over to the press and threw open the lid. "There's plenty of room in here for all of your belongings, Ivoreth. You can help me…" Celebriel paused and then reached into the press. "What's this?"

Ivoreth flinched – she didn't need to see what Celebriel had fetched from the press. But she couldn't help watching with trapped fascination as the elleth slowly unwrapped the oil-stained linen bundle to expose the dried slabs of cheese and hardened rolls that had been so carefully hidden away almost a week ago. Then there were the silver coins – all five of them – that had, one by one, been added to the bundle over time; coins that had been left unattended by those who seemed to have so very many of them – coins that could spell the difference between living and dying for two small girls.

"Ivoreth?" Celebriel asked again, her face unreadable. At least three of those silver coins had very likely come from _her_ chamber – and had been missed, as had the ones that apparently vanished from Elrohir's coin pouch. The discussion among the adults about the missing coins had decided that they would be discovered eventually – probably having dropped to the floor at some point in time, to be found when the apartment was cleaned just before they departed. Certainly none living there had even considered a thief in their midst – a thief who only barely managed to keep squirming and giving away her guilt right there at the supper table.

The sound of the front door opening and closing made Ivoreth flinch again. Ada was home for the evening – and from the look in Celebriel's face, she was going to be telling Ada all about this. Ivoreth pushed herself back across the bed until she was huddled into the corner by the headboard, and then curled herself up into a small ball and threw her arm over her head.

_I knew they wouldn't understand. But I had to make certain that if anything happened – or if Raini and I ended up staying behind after all when Ada and the others leave – that I could keep us alive for a little while longer. She'll never want to be nice to me again now, though. I'm sorry, Celebriel…_

Ivoreth knew that Celebriel had left the room – most likely with her survival bundle in hand – and the sound of voices told her that Ada was being informed. She pulled herself into an even tighter ball and tucked her head down.

_I'm sorry – but I had to protect myself and Raini…_

She heard stirring behind her that could only be her Ada, and she screwed her eyes tightly closed and promised herself that she wouldn't cry out while being beaten. He would have to beat her now, wouldn't he?

"Ivore… _A Elbereth_!" Ada's voice had sounded stern, but had softened with shock. "I thought we'd come further than this."

Ivoreth felt the mattress of her bed dip with her Ada's weight, and then he was sitting next to her, his large hands trying to carefully pry her arm back down from over her head. "Ivoreth," he said again, this time in a gentler tone. "Look at me, _nethben_."

She shook her head.

_I deserve the beating. I stole from Ada – from all of them. I had to – but I didn't want to. Now he'll leave me behind, and I won't be able to survive… I'm sorry, Ada!_

But Ada was stronger than she – a lot stronger – and he soon peeled her arm from over her head and hauled her up into his lap to be held tightly. Ivoreth kept her eyes closed – she didn't want to see the hurt and disappointment and anger that was certain to be in Ada's gaze.

"I just want to know why," Ada said in a calm and quiet voice that shocked her into breaking her promise to herself not to look at him. The disappointment in his gaze cut her heart until it bled with remorse, but the absence of anger astonished her most. Instead of anger, there was a gentle confusion. "Tell me why," he insisted again.

"If…" she began, her throat closing down with sobs that she quashed mercilessly. "If you died…" The look of confusion warmed to one of understanding; which, rather than making her feel better, only served to make her feel as if she'd made a terrible mistake.

"Or… or if Raini and I didn't go with you…" she tried again, flinching as she saw sudden surprise in the grey eyes at the mere thought of her staying behind, deliberately or otherwise. "I was just taking care of Raini and…" She swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, Ada. I didn't want to, but I had to… In case you…"

"Ah_, nethben nîn,_ I thought I had earned your trust," Ada shook his head and whispered. "I can understand your fear of my being taken from you by death – you have lost far too many in your short life for that not to be a concern, but do you honestly think I'd leave you and your sister behind, penniless and alone as you were before you came to me?"

_Do I?_

Ivoreth stared up into her Ada's face, trying to take the measure of this wonderful and grand Elf who had so invaded her life. "I don't know," she finally whispered back. "You aren't here very much anymore…" He'd been gone for days now – only coming back to the apartment in the evenings in time to eat a meal and read a story to her before bedtime. Even Elrohir had been conspicuously absent. Yes, the new wardrobe hinted that she actually might be going with them – but even the clothes weren't a guarantee.

"But I always come back, don't I?"

Ivoreth caught her breath at the despair in his voice, and she nodded before closing her eyes again. _He wasn't going to leave us. I ruined everything – for nothing. _ Still, she had to plea at least for her little sister's sake. "You can beat me, Ada – I know I have it coming. And I don't mind if you leave me behind – I'll make it somehow. Just, please, don't leave Raini. She didn't do anything…"

"I'm not…" Ada paused and then clasped Ivoreth tightly against him. "I'm not going to beat you – and I'm certainly not going to leave either you or Raini behind. You are _both_ my daughters now, and I'm taking you _both_ with me back to my home, where you can grow up away from this place and all the memories."

_He's _not_ going to beat me? Why not?_

"But I'm a thief…"

"Yes, you are – but it's a very bad habit that you can and will unlearn," Ada shook his head at her. "You'll owe a very big apology to Celebriel and Elrohir for stealing from them – and you shall have to do much to earn their trust back."

"They'll hate me now." Ivoreth shiffled. "I've ruined everything."

"No. They'll understand. They'll be disappointed in you, as I am, but they won't hate you once we explain things to them. "

_We? _Ivoreth pushed away to look up into Ada's face again.

"I've given the coins that you stole back to Celebriel and Elrohir," he added in a calm voice that nonetheless brought the gooseflesh up on Ivoreth's neck. "You will apologize to them at the table tonight – without fail – and you will give them your word that you will never again enter their chambers or take their belongings without permission. As my daughter and as a daughter of the House of Elrond, you are honor-bound to keep your word at all costs – and this is as good a time as any to begin to learn that responsibility and obligation. You will also bear whatever punishment they each think appropriate without complaint. Is that clear?"

Ivoreth nodded, her heart in her feet and her stomach in knots. In some ways, being beaten would have been easier to handle. She'd never had to try to win forgiveness before – not for something _this_ bad.

"And here." Ada took her hand and in it placed a very small leather pouch with a long looping strap – a pouch that Ivoreth could feel held weight. "Take this and keep it well. There are two gold coins in this. Keep it as a sign of my promise that you'll never be without again – and return it to me when you can finally trust that I will not abandon you."

She stared at him, unable to close her hand over the loaded pouch. What was he doing? "Ada?"

Ada wrapped her fingers around the pouch. "I would have you feel secure, daughter. If coin is what it takes to do that, then coin you shall have – until such time as you no longer doubt your place in my house or my heart."

Ivoreth pulled her hand with its precious cargo to her breast. "I'm sorry, Ada."

Ada's hand caressed her face and cheek. "I know you are, _nethben nîn_. Come now – let's go talk to Celebriel. We need to get this settled before the time comes to leave."

oOoOo

Ivoreth trotted next to her Ada in the morning sunshine, her hand nestled comfortably in his as she sought to keep pace with him. All he had told her about where they were going that morning was, "There's someone I want you to meet before we leave," and her curiosity at his refusal to tell her anything else had finally managed to bring her up out of her guilty depression for the first time in days.

Neither Elrohir nor Celebriel had hidden their hurt and disappointment at her stealing from them – although both accepted Ada's explanation. Elrohir's response to the whole situation had been a withdrawal of affection that – especially in light of his continued joy in Raini – stung worse than any beating Da had ever given her. Celebriel voiced her disapproval of Ivoreth's actions loudly and clearly, and yet other than assigning Ivoreth household tasks that were normally the job of the maids, seemed willing to allow the incident to pass after the heat of the moment was done.

Ivoreth did her new tasks with a dedicated efficiency, in hopes that she'd at least be able to keep her close friendship with the elleth. She watched Elrohir in the evenings with an empty, aching feeling in her heart, however – and his continuing to avoid her or even speak to her often brought her close to tears. The tiny pouch with the gold coins hung around her neck as she moved through the apartment on quiet feet, afraid to do anything that would upset any of her new family any more than they already were.

Ada pulled gently on her hand and steered her into the gaping doorway of what looked and smelled like a stable. "Since you will be riding with me," he grinned down at her at the small gasp of surprise that had escaped, "I thought it would be best if you met Môrraud now rather than on the morning we leave."

"Môrraud?" Ivoreth repeated without understanding.

"It means 'dark champion' in Sindarin – and believe me, he has triumphed where many a lesser steed would have failed." Ada walked down a line of gates and then pulled one of them open. "Wait out here a moment," he directed, and then entered the stall. Ivoreth heard him speaking in a low voice in his musical language, and then: "Now, come to the gate and let him see you."

Ivoreth stepped cautiously forward until she could peer into the stall, only to find herself almost face to face with the huge, black warhorse that she had seen her Ada riding that day. Intelligent dark eyes peered at her, and the nostrils flared as the steed breathed in her scent. Ivoreth looked up into her Ada's face with fright. "He's very big."

"Put out your hand – let him smell you," Ada directed, motioning her closer to him, although keeping himself between her and the warhorse's bulk.

Ivoreth stared at her Ada. "Will he bite me?" she asked, keeping her hands behind her back.

"No, daughter. He's quite the gentleman, when he wants to be. Give him a chance."

Her hand shook badly, but Ada had yet to ask her to do something that resulted in bringing her to harm, so she swallowed hard and did as he directed. The velvet nose stretched out to snuffle at her hand and then moved close to her face, the breath ruffling the stray ends of her hair. The dark ears pointed forward, and Elladan chuckled. "Be nice, my friend. She's never seen one such as you before up close. Don't frighten her."

Ivoreth glanced up again, much of her fear evaporating in the magic of the moment. "Can I touch him?" she asked in a whisper.

"Yes."

Again her hand shook, but Môrraud lowered his nose down so that Ivoreth could touch him, and she startled at first. "He's so soft!" she exclaimed, running her fingertips very lightly over the velvet between the nostrils. Her smile grew as the nose pressed against her fingers.

"I wanted you to at least see him up close once before we leave, because you and I will be on his back for a very long time," Ada explained in a very pleased tone, watching Ivoreth get braver and reach for the swirl of hair at the steed's forehead – which Môrraud conveniently moved into reach. "He likes his forehead scratched," he told her with a grin.

Small fingers obediently moved back and forth over the oddly stiff hair, and the black face moved closer still. The soft nose brushed against her chest with another snuffle. Ivoreth looked back up at her Ada, her face showing her utter enchantment. "I will ride him?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Ada patted Môrraud's neck and then dropped to one knee to look Ivoreth in the eye. "I say unfortunately because you, my daughter, are not used to being on the back of a horse for hours at a time – and there is little outside the preparations I'm already making to ease that journey for you. We must travel fast, and so you will ride before me on Môrraud while Elrohir carries Raini with him. Raini is small enough that she will fit in a sling – but you will have to sit the horse."

Ivoreth gazed at her Ada in confusion. "And that is a bad thing?"

Ada shook his head. "No – but it will be most uncomfortable for you. I have had a new saddle made for you that will fit in front of my own to make you as comfortable as possible. But Môrraud is too big for you to begin with, and your muscles will get tired of being in the same place for hours and being rubbed constantly because the horse will not be halting but a few times each day." He sighed. "I want you to know that if it gets to be too painful for you, I can give you something to make you sleep through much of the journey."

"Is it very far, where we're going?" she asked, her hand reaching out and caressing the soft nose and lips of the great stallion standing so patiently and quietly in front of her.

"We will be riding hard for at least a fortnight, perhaps a day or so longer," Ada replied. "We will also be stopping for a day – maybe two – in Lothlorien, where my grandparents live. There are certain to be messages that need to be carried to my father, and some of the elves who journey with us travel only as far as that."

Ivoreth's eyes opened wide as some of what her Ada was telling her finally sank in. "I will meet your grandparents – your father?"

Ada smiled gently. "Yes, _nethben_, you will meet much of my family still in Arda on this trip." He gazed at her with clear fondness. "They will be surprised by you, I'm certain – but they will love you as I do very quickly. And Imladris will be your home from now on – a much better place to grow up into a beautiful young lady than this noisy city of stone."

Ivoreth closed the distance between herself and Ada and leaned, putting her arms around his neck and closing her eyes as strong arms enclosed her and held her close in return.

_I don't want to be here anymore either. People I love die here. I don't want to be a thief anymore – and that's what I am here. I want to go to Im… Imla…Ada's home. _

"How soon do we go?"

"Soon, Ivoreth. Very soon."


	16. Epilogue

Chapter 16 – Epilogue

The morning sun had barely begun to peek into the window of Ivoreth's bedchamber when Celebriel gently jostled her awake. "Time to get dressed, Ivoreth," she urged as she moved over to rouse Raini and then help the child into her traveling clothes. "Don't forget to put on the stockings and then linen trousers under that split skirt – you'll ache bad enough at the end of the day without having rubbed your skin raw as well."

Ivoreth eyed the long, thin, silken stockings that had appeared on top of the folded pile of her traveling clothing two nights earlier. "Won't they be hot in the sun?" she asked, finally pulling her sleeping gown over her head and making for the basin and pitcher to wash her face and body before dressing.

"The weather isn't warm enough yet to make them uncomfortably hot," Celebriel answered easily, easing a similar set of stockings over the younger girl's thin legs before starting to work the suede trousers over them. "And until the day warms, you'll be glad of them."

The _elleth_ took a quick comb and braided both girls' hair into submission and tied the ends with short lengths of thin ribbon the color of the sky. "There," she exclaimed when both stood before her, dressed and groomed, "almost ready. Fold your sleeping gown, Ivoreth, so I can add it to your cushion pack, and then off you go to the kitchen to break your fast."

Ivoreth felt her little sister slip a hand into hers as the two of them made their way to the back of the apartment and the last breakfast they would have in the place they'd called "home" for weeks. Elrohir was waiting for them, and set out plates of bread, sliced meat and honey biscuits as well as wedges of the orange fruit from the very Southlands that Ivoreth had become very fond of. "Eat well," he said as he poured cool water into little bit of wine in their goblets. "Our next meal will not be until after Anor has set."

Ivoreth settled down immediately to do exactly what Elrohir told her to do, grateful that he was even speaking to her this morning after all those days of pointed silence. As she ate, she watched her Ada's brother carefully fill five skins – three large, and two smaller – with water from the barrel and then tamp the sealing corks firmly into place. Those he laid aside at the end of the table to then open the door to the larder and bring out everything that remained within, including several loaves of bread, part of a wheel of cheese and a pair of linen bags that Ivoreth knew held some of her favorite treats: dried fruit slices. All of that Elrohir packed into another suede pack and stacked with the water skins on the end of the table.

"Finished?" he asked brusquely.

Ivoreth nodded and claimed the now empty plate from in front of her sister as well.

"Rinse and stack the dishes, then, while I make certain we aren't forgetting anything," Elrohir directed and then turned away from her. Ivoreth sighed and went to do as she was told. One day, she promised herself, she would win her Ada's brother's forgiveness. One thing was for certain, however, she'd never steal again – not if it meant losing the affection of those she loved again.

_I love them?_

The realization caught her very much by surprise. She'd already decided she loved her Ada – but until that moment, hadn't realized that she'd handed over her heart to both of the other Elves as well. They were family – the only family she had in the world now. She couldn't _not_ love them – and be hurt when that love was rebuffed.

"I've checked the bedchambers," Celebriel announced from near the apartment entrance.

"Good," Elrohir nodded in satisfaction. "We might actually get off on time. Come here." He motioned Ivoreth to him once she'd finished with the dishes. "This," he stated in a very businesslike tone as he draped the strap of one of the smaller water skins over her head and one shoulder, "is your water for the day. Drink sparingly, so that we don't have to stop often, but don't forget to take a swallow or two every hour or so. It will be your responsibility to make certain that it gets filled every morning before we leave – whether you are the one doing the filling or not."

"All right." Ivoreth fidgeted with the skin to get the strap to sit comfortably on her shoulder. "What about Raini's?"

"I'll have her skin with mine," Elrohir replied. He unfolded a length of strong linen and then sat down in one of the chairs. "Come here, _nethben nîn_," he called to Raini and held out his arms to her.

Giggling, the little girl ran to him and clasped her arms around his knee. "'Ro'ir! Pick me up!"

The Elf lord laughed and gathered the little girl up into his lap and tickled her for a moment. "Hold still, now," he cautioned her and then cast the length of linen behind his neck and shoulder. Working quickly, he had the material securely tied and Raini tucked into a comfortable looking sling to his chest where she could lay her head on his shoulder or rest back within the nest created by the linen. When he stood up, her short legs dangled, and she peeked out the top of the sling and giggled again at Ivoreth far below. Elrohir then settled the straps to two water skins over his head and shoulder, letting them fall to his hip.

"That's everything," Celebriel stated, entering the kitchen with two suede bags tied together with long straps and one smaller bundle of wrapped material. "Are we ready?"

"Where's Ada?" Ivoreth needed to know.

"He's with the horses," Elrohir told her bluntly. "He's waiting for us."

"Are you ready?" Celebriel asked her.

Ivoreth nodded, looking around the kitchen one last time. "We're not coming back here again, are we?"

"No," Celebriel said softly, moving to put a hand on her shoulder, "not for a very long time, at least." She put out her hand. "Let's go."

Ivoreth was surprised when they rounded the corner to the yard in front of the stables to see the King and Queen standing next to her Ada. Ada's face lit up in a wide smile. "You look like a very experienced traveler, my daughter."

Ivoreth grinned at the comment, patting her water skin and smoothing her hand over the soft suede tunic.

The Queen moved away from her husband's arm and knelt in front of her. She bent forward and deposited a soft kiss on Ivoreth's forehead. "_Navaer, nethben. _You go to one of the most beautiful places in all of Middle-earth," she said in a voice that was oddly unsteady. "And I wish you to take something there and deliver it for me – can you do this?"

Ivoreth nodded, her eyes wide.

Arwen leaned over and gave Ivoreth two more gentle kisses, one on each cheek. "Each of these kisses belongs to one whom I will never see again – and I would like it very much if you would pass them along for me. This one," she touched one cheek, "I would like you to give to an elf named Erestor. He was my teacher when I was very small, and a friend when I was older. And this one," she touched the other cheek, "I would like you to give to my father. Tell them both that I love them very much."

Ivoreth could see that the Queen was very close to tears. "I will," she promised, her heart full even though she couldn't quite understand the reason behind the Queen's emotions. "I promise."

"Will you also promise to come back when you are older, to serve as one of my ladies? As my niece, it is your right."

Ivoreth raised her eyes to her Ada. "Can I?" she asked.

Ada nodded. "When you are ready, my daughter, I will bring you back to your Aunt Arwen for a time." He reached down to help his sister rise and then pulled her into a tight embrace. "Be well, little sister."

Now the King came over and crouched down in front of Ivoreth. "The next time I see you, you will be a grown-up young woman. Take good care of your Ada for me, will you?"

No longer afraid of this gentle man, Ivoreth nodded easily. "Good-bye, Sire," she said and gave her closest guess at a proper curtsey.

"Good-bye, little brother," Elrohir said, extending his hand down to the King and then pulling him up into an embrace as well. "Take good care of my sister, now, or we'll have to come back and remind you of _why_ you should take good care of her."

"Oh, hush!" Arwen sniffled her tears back and then bent a kiss onto Raini's forehead. "Farewell, little one. I'll want to see you too, someday."

Ivoreth's brow came together, and she gazed first at her Ada and his twin, and then at the King. "Little brother?" she asked, confused.

Elrohir actually chuckled and Ada smiled in amusement. "Yes, daughter. Elrohir and I are the big brothers," and his finger pointed at the King, "and Estel is the _very_ little brother."

"But he looks older," she complained. Neither Ada or Elrohir had a single strand of silver in their long hair, where Estel's hair glistened with silver threads amid the dark.

"We are Elves," Ada reminded her gently. "Estel is Edain."

"You'll understand eventually," the King guffawed softly and then placed a kiss on either cheek and then one on her forehead. "Take my kisses to Erestor and your Ada's Adar for me as well – but the last one was for you alone. Be good, and grow up strong and happy, Ivoreth – I can think of no better place for you to do so than where you're going."

And then her Ada sprang onto the back of Môrraud and held out his arms as the King lifted Ivoreth up to him. She blinked in surprise as she settled into a second seat in front of him securely fastened to his saddle. The cushion of material Celebriel had been carrying made the seat itself just that much more comfortable, and the King helped slip her booted feet into the loops that held her legs to either side of Môrraud's neck. She leaned back into her Ada's chest, and an arm immediately went around her that made her feel quite safe and secure in her high perch.

"Are you certain you've had a chance to say farewell to your old friends, _nethben_? If you need to, we can stop along the way out of the City…"

Ivoreth immediately thought of little Samul – but then discarded the idea. Even though the orphanage the King had taken him to was a big and clean and happy-feeling place, she couldn't help feeling trapped just by being within the walls. No, Samul would be well there – and he was small enough that he would forget her easily as he made new friends.

And there was no going back to the cistern. She didn't belong there anymore – no doubt word of Daren's fate and perhaps even her own had made it within those cold stone walls – and few there had been real friends anyway. In that long, desperate and frightening time after her Da had been killed, she had only had her brother and sisters – and now, all but Raini were gone. Leaving the city and the memories behind would be scary at first, but in the end, she'd be happier in a new place with her new family – her new Ada.

"There's no one to farewell, Ada," she told him with a shake of the head.

All about them, the other Elves who would be riding with them had mounted their horses. She heard Raini squeak in surprise as Elrohir leapt onto the back of his warhorse. It wasn't until she watched Elrohir that she noted that he didn't have reins with which to control the horse – and that Ada didn't have reins to manage Môrraud either. Both Elves seemed perfectly balanced, however. A quick glance about her told her that none were using reins, but all were in complete control.

The King and Queen drew back away from the party. Both raised their hands in farewell. Ivoreth caught her breath as the Queen began to sing, and the King caught the melody and joined his voice to hers. The entire group joined in the refrain as the horses began to move, with Ada and Elrohir leading the way, Celebriel immediately behind them on a beautiful grey and five other Elves behind her.

The song continued all the way down the many Circles of the City and then out the Great Gate. Ivoreth swiveled as much as she could to take a long, last look at the City of her birth, trying hard not to glance to the side as they passed the low wall behind which was the grave of her little brother.

Ada's hand landed on her shoulder. "A new life begins for you now," he spoke into her ear. "A new beginning."

Ivoreth nodded and turned to face forward. In front of her, the green grass of the Pelennor stretched all the way to the purple shadows of mountains on the horizon. She was heading away from all she had known before – a life filled with hardship and grief – and toward a future that, from the security of her Ada's arms, no longer appeared bleak and harsh. This was the beginning of a new life indeed – a new and better life for both her and Raini.

She leaned back and smiled as the strong arm about her tightened immediately. "Let's go home, Ada," she said confidently, her eyes to the horizon.

FIN

**A/N:** Thanks to all of my regular reviewers for all your kind comments - MelMaggio, szepilona10, Elfingimp, Elfinabottle, Ainu Laire, Lady Ambreanna, Lord Arandur, Dulcinea, curiouswombat, and several others - your comments really make writing a whole lot more fun. This is the end of this chapter of Ivoreth's life, but I am working on the sequel. Keep an eye peeled for "Elladaniel" - coming soon.


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